Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
Personal and Career Resilience in Uncertain Times
Managing your Life and Career
Michelle KowalchukThe Vital Village / V2 Consulting
March 10, 2009
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
Agenda• Current Market Realities• What is Resilience and Why is it
Necessary?• Creating Personal Resilience
– Understanding the effects of personal stress indicators on work and lifestyle performance
• Creating Career Resilience– Creating a personal performance brand to
ensure ongoing career success
• Putting it all together
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
Current Market Realities• The US lost 651,000 jobs last month which is
creating a ripple effect through the Canadian economy
• 3 main automakers are close to bankruptcy• World financial institutions are collapsing• World economy is in a downswing that is being
compared to the Great Depression• Employers are restructuring to handle the
downturn and as a result are asking employees to do far more with far less
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What is Resilience
• “the power or ability to return to the original form, position, etc., after being bent, compressed, or stretched; elasticity.”
• “ability to recover readily from illness, depression, adversity, or the like; buoyancy.”
Dictionary.com
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Importance of Resiliency
People are like stained glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their beauty is revealed only if there is a light within.”
Elizabeth Kubler Ross“
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How Stress Affects Resiliency– What is Stress?– Effects of Stress on Personal Performance
and Lifestyle– What Are The Early Warning Signs?– Physical & Emotional Impact of Stress– The Role of Satisfaction
Creating Personal Resilience
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What Is Stress?
Stress is ENERGY … it’s our body’s automatic mechanism for mobilizing the energy we need
We inject ourselves with stress hormones:
Uppers -- adrenalineModulators -- noradren and
Downers -- cortisol
StressorBody’s Response(Fight or Flight)
-adrenaline
Recovery-noradren
Back to Baseline-cortisol
Creating Personal Resilience
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Effects of Stress on the lifestyle and overall performance
We live longer than our forefathers; but we suffer more from a thousand artificial anxieties and cares. They fatigued only the muscles, we exhaust the finer strength of the nerves. ~Edward George Bulwer-Lytton
Creating Personal Resilience
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What Are The Early Warning Signs?• Physical
– Tight muscles, headaches, insomnia, high blood pressure, illnesses that are difficult to diagnose …
• Emotional– Trouble concentrating, forgetful, prone to negative
thinking, lack of self-esteem…….
• Behavioral– Irritable, impulsive, mistrust others, difficulty making
decisions……
Creating Personal Resilience
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• 5 Stress Stages• Fatigue• Strain on
Relationships• Negative emotions• Aches / Pains Illnesses
DEMANDS !!!
UNCERTAINTIES
Threatened3:1
Energy fromStress
StressBuild Up
VictimFeelings
LessEffective
Physical & Emotional Impact of Stress“Too-Much-Stress” Spiral
Creating Personal Resilience
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Effects of Stress
• Workplace indicators and performance
• One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important. ~Bertrand Russell
Creating Personal Resilience
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Core Wellness FactorsTwelve (12) core wellness factors which impact both
personal wellbeing and performance in all jobs:
•Flexibility and Mobility •Energy and Stamina
•Self Care Opportunities •Work Organization
•Time Management •Setting and Achieving Goals
•Relationships with Co Workers •Relationships with Customers
•Relationships with Management •Focus and Concentration
•Emotional Tension •Work/life Balance
Creating Personal Resilience
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• A Customized Path to building personal resiliency
• Understanding the Vitality Quotient
• Understanding your Stress Type
Creating Personal Resilience
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• Personal Vitality Quotient
• Six Stress Types =>• Action Plan most
effective for you
Loner
DrifterCliff Walker
Basket Case
Worry Wart
Speed Freak
Understanding Your Stress Type
Creating Personal Resilience
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Managing Your Stress Type
Stress Type Top 2 Suggested Actions
1. Worry Wart Relaxation Values & Goals
2. Speed Freak Values & Goals Relaxation
3. Drifter Communications Values & Goals
4. Loner Values & Goals Communication
5. Cliff Walker Nutrition Relaxation
6. Basket Case Nutrition Exercise
Creating Personal Resilience
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• Know your Satisfiers– Satisfiers are
experiences that have satisfied you before and you know will again.
– Identify satisfiers from your personal life and your work life
The Role of Satisfaction
Creating Personal Resilience
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Take 3 Strategic Steps
1. Know your personal satisfiers
2. Know what you can & can’t control
3. Take self-serving action…get more satisfier experiences more often
Take 3 Tactical Steps
1. Look forward to them – see visualize
2. Enjoy them actively
3. Relish them afterward
The Role Of Satisfaction
Increase Your Satisfaction By 30%…Increase Your Satisfaction By 30%…
Creating Personal Resilience
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Career Resilience
The elevator to success is broken. You’ll have to take the stairs.”
Joe Girard
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What Does This Mean?– Workplaces are changing more rapidly than
ever before– Understanding our personal indicators,
satisfiers and stress types will position us to create a level of resilience that will allow us to weather the storms of change in ways that will allow us to focus on our careers and not the changes themselves.
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
Creating Career ResilienceDid You Know?• India has more honor students than we have kids.• China will soon be the #1 English speaking country in the
world.• According to former Secretary of Education Richard Riley,
the top 10 jobs that will be in demand in 2010 did not exist in 2004.
• Nintendo invested $140M in R&D in 2002 - more than Canada and the US combined spent on education.
• There are over 106 million registered users of MySpace. If MySpace was a country it would be the 11th largest.
• The number of text messages sent per day exceeds the population of the planet.
• The amount of new technical information is doubling every 2 years. It is predicted by 2016 it will double every 72 hours.
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Career Ladder
Career Models
Traditional hierarchy
Singular path upwards
Move up or stop moving
Work-versus-life balance
Fits more traditional family structure
Assumes workers’ needs remain consistent over time
More conducive to evolving matrix structure (move up or down, or side to side)
Multiple career path options
Move faster, slower; change directions
Work-life balance (Career-life fit)
Aligns to shifting personal priorities
Adjusts as workers’ needs change over time
Career Lattice
Creating Career Resilience
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Creating the “ME Inc.” Brand
Creating Career Resilience
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How to Create the Me Inc. Brand– Managing a career requires focus and lends
itself to many of the principles that apply to time management:
• You set goals• You re-evaluate priorities on an ongoing basis• You step out of your comfort zone• You use the tools and resources that are available
to assist you
Creating Career Resilience
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Your Diversified Me Inc. Portfolio
• Skills
• Knowledge
• Capabilities
• Experience
• Exposure
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
6 Step Action Plan
1 Be a Strategic Career Planner
2 Understand the Marketplace
3Keep an Accomplishment Journal
6 Step Career
Action Plan
4Have a Powerful Resume
5Engage in
Networking
6Stay on the Cutting Edge
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
6 Step Action Plan
4Have a Powerful Resume
1 Be a Strategic Career Planner
2 Understand the Marketplace
3Keep an Accomplishment Journal
6 Step Career
Action Plan
5Engage in
Networking
6Stay on the Cutting Edge
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
6 Step Action Plan
1 Be a Strategic Career Planner
2 Understand the Marketplace
3Keep an Accomplishment Journal
6 Step Career
Action Plan
4Have a Powerful Resume
5Engage in
Networking
6Stay on the Cutting Edge
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
• Write and measure on a regular basis:– specific accomplishments– important projects– notable recognition and examples
where you exceeded expectations– particular activities outside of your
job description
• Actively use this information to:– Sell your skills and abilities inside
and outside of the organization– Have a great dialogue during
performance reviews
Step 3 - Keep an Accomplishment Journal
Creating Career Resilience
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Step 3 - Questions to Help Identify AccomplishmentsDid you…• identify a problem in your department or company that had been overlooked? • help to improve productivity? • take the initiative to improve something or respond to an immediate need? • suggest a new program for your department or company that was put into
effect? • save your department or company money?• help establish any new goals or objectives for your department or company? • implement or improve a new system or procedure in your department or
company? • change in any way the nature of your role? • present any new ideas that were put into effect? • undertake an assignment or project that was not part of your job, just because
you were intrigued by the problem? • informally coach or mentor new or fellow team members?
Individual (yourself, others)
Team (immediate, departmental)
Organizational (systems, policies, culture)
Creating Career Resilience
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Step 3 - Your Career Accomplishments Compose a career
accomplishment using the CAR format:
Challenge Action Result
Share accomplishments with your group
Choose one statement to share with the entire group
Creating Career Resilience
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6 Step Action Plan
1 Be a Strategic Career Planner
2 Understand the Marketplace
3Keep an Accomplishment Journal
6 Step Career
Action Plan
4Have a Powerful Resume
5Engage in
Networking
6Stay on the Cutting Edge
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
6 Step Action Plan
1 Be a Strategic Career Planner
2 Understand the Marketplace
3Keep an Accomplishment Journal
6 Step Career
Action Plan
4Have a Powerful Resume
5Engage in
Networking
6Stay on the Cutting Edge
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
Step 5 - Networking Is….• Developing and maintaining a line of
communication with people you know, or would like to know, for the purpose of getting and sharing information for mutual gain
• Networking is– planned – purposeful – ongoing – reciprocal
Creating Career Resilience
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Step 5 - Networking is NOT…• manipulative• “schmoozing”• unplanned• asking for a job!
Creating Career Resilience
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Step 5 - The Necessity of Networking• Taking the time to network is key to career
management, survival and success• Networking within the organization; through
associations, conferences, and training can build multiple champions and mentors
• 60%+ of all jobs come through networking
Creating Career Resilience
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…if they don’t know who you are.
Step 5 – Networking 101
People can’t do business with you…
Creating Career Resilience
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• Attending and/or speaking at upcoming conferences and seminars
• Writing and publishing articles in trade or professional journals
• Joining relevant organizations and gaining access to their membership lists
• Establishing a focus group or your personal Board of Directors
• Others?
Creating Career ResilienceStep 5 – Additional Networking Strategies
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
6 Step Action Plan
1 Be a Strategic Career Planner
2 Understand the Marketplace
3Keep an Accomplishment Journal
6 Step Career
Action Plan
4Have a Powerful Resume
5Engage in
Networking
6Stay on the Cutting Edge
Creating Career Resilience
Copyright © 2009 – The Vital Village, 6819109 Canada Inc.
Putting It All Together• Personal resiliency helps us to understand our
behaviours and satisfiers and manage them during times of strain so that we are able to keep our focus on the big picture
• Career resiliency allows us to take these indicators and satisfiers and build a personal brand that will allow us to create personal career stability and long term satisfaction
Creating Career Resilience
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Questions
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For More Information Contact
Michelle KowalchukThe Vital Village/V2 Consulting