Growing up and to this day, my mother and now my mother-in-law have continually and regularly told me “save for a rainy day.” Well, my friends, we seem to be in a torrential downpour.
I hope Plan A is solidly in place for all of you and that your Plan B is dusted off and ready. But given all that is going on, working on Plan C now makes some sense. I would like to suggest that this is the time to be both conservative with our careers as well as opportunistic. A short comment about being conservative right now: acting conservatively is not about being ostrich-like and sticking your head in the sand or scurrying around like Chicken Little yelling that “the sky is falling.” More than ever, being conservative is about doing your job flawlessly. You are being watched, and your behaviors are making impressions. It is important to be active, industrious and fully engaged. The way you present yourself is the way you will be seen. In all your actions, focus on adding value. You, single-handedly, cannot control the economy, but you can control your performance. Plan A is to hunker down, focus, be in the game, and perform.While Plan A is about maintaining the status quo, Plan B is making sure your “defense” is ready to go. I am sure most of us have implemented parts of our Plan “B” already. Plan B includes making sound choices. In these tough economic times it is “circling the wagons” and making sure that how we spend our time and our money makes the most sense. Like we have been challenged to watch or trim our budgets at work, it is also time for us to be on top of good fiscal choices in our personal lives. Most of us are caught up and focused on our personal Plan A agenda. And, as I said in the previous paragraph, that makes sense right now. But we’ are out there living in a very dynamic world. Stuff is coming at us 24/7, and we can not control all of it. So it is more important than ever to be on top of what we can control.Plan C is about getting your “offense” going. First, Plan C is a time for you to be reflective and introspective. If you had the opportunity to be looking at your career choices with a clean slate, what would you do? Forget about the titles you have had in your career, but rather break down and analyze what you have done. In what parts of your jobs have you excelled; when and where have you received the most positive feedback? What elements of your responsibilities have given you the most satisfaction, the most “psychic income”? In previous columns, I have written about values. Be paying close attention to how your day is going. Stop and pay attention to how you are feeling. When you are having a great day, your values are being honored. When you are having a lousy day, your values are either being stepped on or stepped over. So, a big part of your homework here is to really notice this and, then be reflective. Spend some of your energy on putting yourself in a place where you are having more value positive situations.
Part two of Plan C is to study what is going on in the world – right now. What opportunities are presenting themselves now? Where else could that list of personal satisfiers be utilized? Maybe you could/should explore a completely different responsibility, location or industry. These opportunities may have always been there and are just more apparent, magnified if you will, because of the status of the economy. Is there something you should be investigating? Forgetting about the stressful times we are in, this, I believe, is a critical activity you should be making part of your personal strategy anyway. So, what does Plan C look like for you?Right now it may be the most important time in your career to be juggling Plans A, B and C. Plan A – you must continue to do excellent work in your current responsibilities. Plan B – you must take aggressive control of your personal choices. Plan C – get busy on carpe diem, seizing the day, and beginning to build the foundation for the next phase in your life.As always, if you would like to have a conversation about this, or anything else, give me a call at 763-521-0030 or check out my web-site www.dreamengineering.com Till next time, cheers!