Happy New Year to you all. 4 People hope you have had a good Christmas and are suitably refreshed ready for 2011.
All the pundits are forecasting a tough year ahead, the CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) are saying unemployment will be above 2.5 million, 120,000 public sector workers will be out of work and 80,000 public sector. These figures are higher than the Coalition Government’s forecast here in the UK. So what can we do?
For those of us in business, ensuring we have a spread of clients, ongoing “contractual services” if we’re in professional services or consultancy and, work hard with a focus i.e. attending the right networking events, conferences and exhibitions as punters rather than necessarily as stand holders. Being seen, developing existing business relationships and above all, ensuring trust and integrity should be the centre of what we say and do. This may not protect us against some down turn in our sales and activity but it will mean people in businesses will remember us.
What about ourselves? Ensuring we maintain currency in our own skills and knowledge is vital, so attending our professional networks, taking the opportunity to seek out updating forums and reading – whether relevant and reliable Internet sites, journals or (for those who have professional and/or academic qualifications) books.
Development workshops for getting to understand ourselves even further can be helpful to reflect and refresh our professional personal skills.
Whatever we do, it is about maintaining optimism and planning for the future. I want to avoid being pessimistic and being “brought down” with the negative talk. Yes, things are likely to be tough but there in lies the reason for maintaining purpose and focus.
Happy 2011.
A colleague of mine is a member of the General Synod (Church of England). He has been elected this year and keenly awaited his attendance. The first day at Synod was Induction. My colleague has been on Synod before so there was a tiny bit of him wondering why he needed to be inducted. So he goes along to the induction and found it was clearly aimed at those with no previous experience of this institution. I’m sure he found some aspects helpful, but it raised a question for me: how many people get put through “the induction” without anyone actually thinking about what each person really needs?
New starters to an organisation so often have the “catch all” induction when really what is needed is “how are things done around here”? The “catch all” may be helpful a few days into the new role / organisation but surely it is about colleagues, their manager and Director helping them to feel welcome, introducing them to the work, clients and generally helping them in the “socialisation” process i.e. how do I fit in around here? What do I do? Who do I need to build positive and constructive relationships with?
Treating people as individuals who join our organsaitions and who join our departments, even for a short time, is crucial. Perceptions are psoitvie i.e. “I am expected”, “they have taken trouble to consider my strengths and my offers, my previous knowledge, skills and experince.” So in the future, why not find out about what new colleagues really need before they start and discover if the “catch all” is worth it after all.
We are just back from a week in the Lake District, walking the fells and really feeling the wind blow! It was fantastic with the bright colours of autumn and the sunshine (except 1 day!). What has this got to do with work, training and development?
It really struck me about taking time out. The mobile was off, and I stopped thinking about work. I have come back refreshed, clear headed and a focus for the next few months.
So often we hear the term work life balance as if there needs to be a choice; really it is about the blend of life we choose. Having the mobile switched off gave me a real break, getting out into the hills gave me some exercise – maybe I can’t do the hills so much in Norfolk (!) but the fresh air is there. My life blend has improved to what I want it to be now. I am getting out to walk each day at lunchtime, with the mobile switched off for that bit of time!
What about your blend? Are you happy with it? Take some time out and see what happens.
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Thanks
Mags
4People can provide you with many different forms of business training including workshops.
