PROGRAM FOR

- THE LIVING ROOM (RCS)

“The Career Coach Is In”

Week 1: Monday 22 May 2000, 1115 – 1200

Topics for Today:

1. Re-visit definition of a Career

“Sequence of jobs implying some progression in salary,

responsibilities, and status. A related set of job moves that
results in progression in skills and competencies
recognised by yourself and your employers.”

Another important term: “Career Plateauing”

“Reaching a level of skills and job position that best

matches your competencies and maintaining that level for
more than two years.”

Importantly NOT Peter’s Principle: “Promoted to your

level of incompetency” but rather promoted to your
highest level of competency – a level at which you can
sustain satisfactory performance.

Job enrichment and job enlargement are used to keep the

job interesting for these staff, says the research.
Career Development = activities chosen to improve a
persons career success, longer term activities like having a
mentor or career coach, taking up a new qualification or
course, training and development, specific long term work
assignments etc.

Responsibility of both company and person

2. Different Ways of looking at Career Development

Suitability vs. Eligibility

Suitability = Your match to the job based upon 8

different personal factors:
1. Your match to the tasks required of you
2. Your interest in the job
3. Your attitudes about the job
4. Your personality balance
5. Your motivation (drive) and how well you manage
stress
6. Your interpersonal skills
7. Your decision-making skills
8. Your match to the working environment

So, NOT just personality but other very important factors

that make up your level of connectivity with your work &
workplace.

Eligibility = Your past experience and work history, &

Your Qualifications

Traditionally all that is used to see if you fit the job…

what if you chose the wrong career direction first time?
Issues: - Matching you to a job using interview and
eligibility is only 55% accurate. Assessing
Suitability can improve the accuracy of your
match to over 90% accuracy!
- Knowing yourself better can improve your chances
of success in your career over 90% also.
- Responsibility for these issues is shared by both
employees and employer

Career Anchors…
Developed by USA Researcher and well-known author
Edgar Schein.
Career anchor is a very stable description of your ‘real
self’ these are the perceived areas of competence, motives
and values that you are not willing to give up. You may be
diverted temporarily by say extra money but you will
return to your career anchor because it is the real you. It is
something you cannot be without.

There is only one career anchor for every one – which best
fits their self-image. Schein found eight such anchors
describe everyone, so that you can find your one anchor in
the following list of eight:
1. Technical/functional competence
2. General Managerial competence
3. Autonomy/independence
4. Security/stability
5. Entrepreneurial Creativity
6. Service/dedication to a Cause
7. Pure challenge
8. Lifestyle
So only one anchor from the list best fits you. Although it
may not reflect your current career, you will return to it
when circumstances permit. Likely to be reflected in your
career choice after thirty years old. People can adapt to
other situations but they will return to their preferred
competencies and self-image as soon as they get the
chance.
Employees, according to Schein, must communicate
clearly their career needs and preferences. People must
learn to manage their own careers.
Employers, according to Schein, can:
1. Create more flexible career paths, incentives systems
and reward systems to allow for individual differences.
2. Stimulate more self-insight and self-management,
managers act as career development role models –
practice what they preach
3. Better analyse the job requirements and competencies
and share that knowledge with their employees to
enable effective career decisions to be made

Career Stages – Donald Super Et Al.

Super mapped career development across life stages.
Identified TEN major stages of career development:
1. Growth, fantasy, exploration
2. Education & Training
3. Entry to the world of work
4. Basic work acclimatisation and socialisation
5. Gaining of membership
6. Gaining of tenure, permanent membership
7. Mid-career crisis & reassessment
8. Maintaining momentum, regaining it, or leveling off
9. Disengagement
10.Retirement

Super sys that these stages occur in age related pace but
others no longer find that age is relevant. In other words,
you can jump from stage to stage independent of your age.
Some stages may repeat themselves as you change career.
There may be an age timetable for each occupation but
each occupation may be different.

Career Success – Edgar Schein

Three different types of career moves that you can make:

1. Horizontal Movement: cross-functional – extend skills

and use new abilities, like job enlargement
2. Vertical Movement: upward promotion implying
progress in job scope, seniority and competency
3. Lateral Movement: moving towards the ‘inner circle’ or
power centre of a company; this may be because of
experience, technical competency or corporate history
knowledge – seniority. Like being consulted regularly
by senior management for your inputs.

Career paths can reflect all three of these career

movements and may have different values for the person
depending on their aspirations and self-image. Success
may be interpreted differently by them from their
organisation and others in society. Usually it will combine
aspirations plus self-image and be occupation specific.
To summarise:
We have some important ideas developed about you and
how you can fit or match your career (using suitability not
just qualifications and experience), how you can judge
your career success (considering horizontal, lateral and
vertical moves) and how your career may change over
your life span

We have some actions that you and your company can

take to help both achieve the most from career
development.

Other issues that relate to this first ground turning

session:

How can you tell if you are in the right career? What can
you look out for?
personal satisfaction level
success level
control level
progression

How can you learn more about yourself?

personality tests
career anchor assessment
ask your trusted friends
get help from HR

How can you and your company work together to help

your career development be successful?
training and development
 offer career assessment facilities
inform you about career development opportunities
like horizontal. lateral, and vertical job
opportunities
develop a joint career development plan with you

John Read
Managing Consultant
What Career Next!
Career Transition – William Bridges

Has three stages:

1. An ‘ending’ – breaking away from your old identity,
disengaging from ‘the way things were’.
Parallel – in learning here is ‘unlearning’ or letting go of
old habits

2. A ‘neutral zone’ – lost between the old and the new

ways of doing and being, not yet found ways to
accommodate the new ways of living and working.
This is the early part of the ‘learning curve’ where new
behaviors and actions are not yet fully acquired.

3. A ‘new beginning’ where you can begin to feel at

home with the new ways that things are done and the way
things are in the new world.
Competency is has been achieved in the new conditions
using new behaviors.

Resitance to change is in fact resistance to transition from

one self image and way of being and doing to another.
Must deal with the feelings of loss and grief that follow
such transition.

Recipe to cope - Four P’s to managing transition:

Purpose – set new goals that work under the new
situation
Picture – develop a clear picture or visions of where
you want to go
 Plan – build the steps that link where you are to where
you want to be
Part – the role that you must play to achieve your plan,
and the new role(s) that you are going to play

Feeling that you are in control of your destiny is a

significant key to success in any transition.