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One of the main mantras that prevail in the personal improvement/effectiveness movement is this idea of personal responsibility and ownership. The discourse tends to argue that you can improve yourself by “owning” your own destiny. Take on a new project, develop a “can-do” attitude or change how you see problems. The theory seems to state that we are all happier and more committed when we have a sense of meaning and a level of autonomy in our lives. Apparently, we are less stressed as a result.

Tips three and five in the Harvard Management Tips book builds on this idea by advising you to open your mind to new things and increase your desire to learn. Ask questions and find ways to apply your expertise to different situations. Adopt a learner’s approach. Tip eight advises you to stop making excuses for your bad behaviours and change! Think of the impact your character flaws have on others around you.

How to change your behaviour is outlined in Tip 33. Firstly, you should take ownership and believe you can change. Secondly, be patient and persist with your personal changes. Thirdly, accept any difficulties you encounter on the way. Fourthly, refuse to be distracted. Fifthly maintain your changes constantly. If you can persist with your changes you will find that you are a better leader, apparently!

I guess a good way to start improving yourself is to audit your behaviour and ask others for feedback. Feedback seems to be a key requirement in the self-improvement process. I would accept that it serves as a useful reality check, but only if someone is willing to accept other people’s criticisms of their conduct.

Although I do wonder sometimes, whether our character flaws are what make us human. If we change too many things about ourselves, do we deny the past experiences that brought us there in the first place? Who has the authority to change you? Why should you change if you get things done well? And when do we stop improving? How long does this process continue for? The phrase life-long learning is very popular, but can you really teach an old dog, new tricks? So many questions – I guess I must be opening up my mind!

References:
Harvard Business School, (2011) “Management Tips from Harvard Business Review”, Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business Review Press, p5, p7, p10, p43.

Feedback Flower (Photo credit: jonathanpberger)

One of the main ways to improve your “self” is to ask for feedback from friends, family and work colleagues. In theory, inviting feedback on your performance should help you understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. It’s also a way of clarifying your perceptions and ideas about your own performance. The Harvard Business Review Management Tips 4, 7 and 8 expand on this ideology.

For instance, there is a suggestion about meeting with former co-workers each month to keep in touch and well-informed about industry changes. And that you could use this session to invite feedback on your contributions to your industry’s space. Another tip suggests that you reflect on your annual work performance review to find ways of turning any highlighted weaknesses into strengths. Furthermore, you are encouraged to ask people who you are in continual contact with (such as direct reports, peers and customers) to critique your ideas and approaches.

But can we deal with this level of constant feedback? How much can one’s ego take? Is it possible that we could just develop a hard exterior shell to deflect so-called constructive criticism? Will our defensive mechanisms deep within our sub-conscious rise up to protect us? No doubt asking for feedback on our performance is a necessary activity from time-to-time, but could it end up being an exhaustive pursuit distracting us from actually getting things done?

The personal improvement industry is a very Americanised one. I sometimes wonder how well ideas developed by North American gurus translate in Europe or even the UK. Our cultural worldviews have been honed by differing socio-economic paradigms, language, and historical contexts. For example, Europe, including the UK, too a large extent has socialistic, liberal and secular leanings. The US in comparison seems to have a more individualistic culture emphasising personal autonomy and responsibility.

McCabe (2011) in his article Opening Pandora’s Box touches on these considerations in his analysis of the effectiveness of Stephen Covey’s ideas in a UK context.  He believes Covey’s ideas are entrenched in the American dream of freedom and self-determination (p186) and are therefore context-specific. McCabe’s main argument is that ideas are hard to implement as intended because interpretation, context and organisational make-up can markedly influence the end result.

I remember a time early in my career when 360-feedback was introduced as part of the annual performance review. It was a disaster. Senior members of staff, whom you would have liked feedback from, did not have time to respond to your requests, and personal agendas from colleagues surfaced in the feedback/criticism.

Maybe this situation occurred because it was an HR/senior staff implementation failure or because new American owners wanted to take charge. But I don’t think it was much of a coincidence that a quarter of the department left by the end of the year. I suspect that many people were not keen on the new working environment! Extensive organisational change I think can trigger unanticipated behaviour. After all, people make up organisations!

I am more of a fan of feedback with specific evidence. For example, “that was good/bad because of doing X and Y”.  It anchors people to unambiguous action. Daniel Pink’s book discusses how children respond to direct feedback and not generalities. Pink suggests praising effort and strategy as children are more likely to take on more difficult tasks that stretch and develop them.

Pink also implies that adults need meaningful achievement too. He believes that Type 1 behaviour (intrinsic satisfaction derived from a task) such as displayed by Warren Buffet or Mozart is made from circumstance, experience and context.  It stems from a human desire to improve and master something that matters to others. So maybe we can all become more effective as long as we are willing.

References:

Pink, D. H. (2009), “Drive: The Surprising Truth about what Motivates us”, Cannogate Press, Edinburgh, pp178-79.

McCabe, D. (2011). Opening Pandora’s Box: The Unintended Consequences of Stephen Covey’s Effectiveness Movement Management Learning, 42 (2), 183-197

Using the handy Harvard Management Tips booklet for guidance, I have decided to work through its advice to see whether I can improve my management perspective and self. Tip one advises you to clarify and refine your leadership vision by articulating your values and re-examining your goals for the future.  It says to find a few important episodes in your life that you think defines your values/you.

I guess one important value for me will be the achievement of my MBA in June 2012. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed the course materials and the re-development of my analytical thought processes. It has left me wanting more, particularly now that I feel that I have mastered the art of writing merit-graded assignments! Maybe that’s a little self-absorbed, but it feels nice to gain academic validity from something that I have put a lot of effort into. I’m a better student, more careful and mature, than I was when I completed a BA in English in my early twenties.

Another rather important value for me is nurturing my family. It has taught me to be a little less self-absorbed and more considerate of others. I think I’m more ethical and interested in longer-term, more sustainable things because of it. Before marriage and children I was more hyper and impatience. I’ve learnt to temper some of that by listening more and trying harder to see beyond the right-now. Mind you, it’s not always easy!

After thinking of what these episodes mean, you then need to write a personal leadership statement explaining the type of leader you want to become and the contributions you want to make by 2025. I assume this means how you want to lead yourself and not others. In that context, I hope that I’ll be using my talents and expertise to keep myself busy! If I’m a little more specific I hope that I have a Ph.D. and a sustainable writing career. I hope I can keep myself motivated and open to new perspectives and ideas. If I manage to influence others and gain some sort of recognition for it in years to come then that would obviously be a bonus.

Tip 46 builds on this leadership vision by suggesting that you develop a leadership brand and articulate it in a statement. Mine is “I want to be known for good research skills so that I can deliver useful ideas and perspectives to others”. Once you have your leadership brand you should ask others for feedback on whether or not you are living up to your brand. Let’s see how the next few months pan out for me!

References:

Harvard Business School, (2011) “Management Tips from Harvard Business Review”, Boston, Massachusetts, Harvard Business Review Press, pp: 3, & 60.

Following on from my post on the limitations of reflection, I have turned my attention to potential ways of knowing. Sparrow (2006) suggests that meaning is socially produced and situationally interpreted. He argues that there are many features of thinking that appear to be denied or glossed over such as meaning through collaboration, emotion, and visual thought as outlined in the list below:

Conscious thought:

• Semantic understanding,
• Episodic memory

Subconscious thought:

• Skilled actions,
• Tacit understanding,
• Unconscious leanings

Types of thought:

• Propositional language,
• Image based,

Direction:

• Reasoned direction,
• Fluid and tangential,
• Circular and emotion-tagged.  Basic forms of thought Sparrow (2006)

Sparrow (2006) concludes that maybe if we can appreciate the interplay of emotion, imagery and cognition at work it may help us to harness tacit insights more readily. To an extent I agree with him. As I write-up my EBI project, I have been looking for ways of illustrating my insights and I realised that mind-mapping was going to be a very good way of demonstrating and evidencing my thinking and strains of thought.

I have always used mind maps on paper. I generally write things out in my messy notebook and on the backs of envelopes. I find it easy to add to things as I see the pros and cons of each thought in a visual way. I prefer doing my thinking that way first and then sharing it with others afterwards. I am not keen on group brainstorming sessions. I always find them too competitive and stressful. I can’t think straight. The nice thing about sharing a mind-map with someone afterwards is that you can add their perspective more easily without it colouring your initial thoughts. You can use different colours to illustrate someone else’s opinions, and your own different strains of thought.

It is getting easier to mind-map on the go too. After receiving some mind-mapping software recommendations from an Open University LinkedIn Group, I have bought iThoughts for the iPad and downloaded FreeMind for the PC. I find that I use the iPad a lot now for studying as it is so handy when you are on the go. And using a mind-mapping program means it is much easier to edit and rearrange your strains of thought than big pieces of A3 paper and on the back of text books!

Here is an example of my mind-mapping handiwork so far:

Reference:

Sparrow, J (2006). Beyond Sense-making: Emotion, Imagery and Creativity. Creative Management and Development, 82-97

After David at C2 Careers kindly pointed me in the direction of the chaos theory of careers. I have been busy thinking (among other things!) of Duffy’s (2000) research and how it relates to my context. Duffy defines career-plateau as a time of change, transition, re-evaluation and reflection. I certainly can relate to that outline.

She cites Bardwick’s (1986) three types of career plateau workers in the article. Those being structural, content, and personal. Structural relates to limited opportunities for career development within an organisation. Content plateau is when an employee has mastered their job and needs further stimulation. Personal plateau, probably the most dangerous of all, is when both work and non-work activities are not stimulating for an individual at all.

Duffy (2000) suggests that chaos theory can help explain an individual’s career-plateau journey because there are usually trigger points (an urgent awareness that change must occur). During this time, the individual can experience much uncertainty, unpredictability, and ambiguity. Despite this chaos, order is found and arises out of it as the individual finds ways of creating change whilst a self-organising process usually takes hold through the transition. A new way of knowing emerges.

I can certainly empathise with this description. My MBA journey was triggered by a combination of factors. I had added to my family and could not envisage juggling both full-time work and family responsibilities in a fast-paced environment. My husband was, and still is, travelling abroad a lot which sometimes makes family-life unpredictable. I had also accumulated more than ten years of work experience so it felt like the time was right to explore more academic options. The MBA definitely fitted the bill as I felt it may also open the door to different work opportunities in the future. And so far, against all that chaos at the time, it seems like I made the right call by instigating change. So far, I think I have developed better analytical thinking skills in the last two years of study and a much broader management outlook.

References

Bardwick,J.M. (1986). The Plateauing Trap: How to avoid it in your career…and in your life American Management Association

Duffy, J. A. (2000). The Application of Chaos Theory to the Career-Plateaued Worker Employment Counseling, 37 (December), 229-236

I’m so glad that I have found Herminia Ibarra (2002) articles. She has a lot of useful comments on personal and career development. She is also very practically focused, which suits my EBI requirements. Ibarra (2002) also has a different take on the whole career redevelopment approach, which is outlined in her Harvard Business Review article “How to stay Stuck in the Wrong Career.

Ibarra (2002) believes that instead of wasting too much time planning, analysing, and researching career change options, you should take action first and work through the results iteratively afterwards. Through an action-oriented approach you can adapt, regroup your thoughts, and reorient your pathway from real-life experience. This means that your career change is never a pipedream that is too risky to implement because you are actively pursuing change. You have real-life information on which to base a decision.

It’s also a good way of exploring our many different “selves”. Ibarra quotes research from cognitive psychologist Hazel Markus (1986), Possible Selves, which explores the idea of multiple adult identities formed in the present, past and future. Ibarra argues that her own research reflects this idea that we have many identities. Her career-change subjects identified job opportunities that arose from volunteer opportunities, married life, and networks outside of the workplace. Some subjects had wild ideas of becoming tour guides or scuba instructors whilst others found identities in the non-profit sector. Ibarra does not believe that we can find our one “true self” and that too much introspection will amount to nothing more than daydreams. It’s action that counts.

The approach Ibarra (2002) recommends in anyone’s career change action is called “the practice of working identity”. This is a practice of applying effort to reshape our identity. This skill is one that Ibarra (2002) says can be learned by anyone seeking professional renewal. She calls this the “test and learn” model of change.  Ibarra advocates three main ways of a working through a career-change process: crafting experiments, shifting connections, and making sense of your journey.

Through crafting experiments we can test out new activities and professional roles in small manageable ways. Find an opportunity to learn a new identity through a related work project, a volunteer option, further training, or by freelancing. Concrete experience is what is required if you really want to move in a new direction.

Although feedback is a good way of gaining insight into your personality and ways of working, in practice, people who are too close to us have their own biases and agendas. They can have a vested interest in keeping the status quo. Networking away from our friends and family and current workplace, shifting connections, can provide a necessary new perspective on what is achievable. It may even open you up to new possibilities that have not been considered.

Making sense of your change requires a narrative to explain your new direction. What triggered your epiphany? What were the defining moments? How did you get there? By creating a personal narrative, we can explain our new direction to others and believe in it ourselves. It also solidifies the action taken and defines your purpose.

Ibarra (2002) concludes that those that successfully reoriented their career pathway took smaller steps that allowed them to learn from experience. Nobody in her research followed a linear pathway. She states that most career transition takes three years and it must start with action.

Overall, Ibarra has given me lots to think about. Despite her research being based on only 39 career-change case studies, I think she has a point in stating that you must actually take action if you want to change. It links very nicely with Kolb and Fry (1975) experiential learning cycle, which is about learning from action, reflecting, and then implementing further change.

So far, I have already filled in an online career inventory with CASCAiD, http://www.cascaid.co.uk/ . That has given me a top 20 list of roles that it claims I am suitable for, some of the roles I have already thought were possible. I also have an MBTI profile. And I also have various opportunities to network with others either through volunteer opportunities or networking groups. I guess it is time to start taking action!

References

Ibarra H (2002). How to stay stuck in the wrong career. Harvard business review, 80 (12) PMID: 12510536

Kolb, D.A., & Fry, R. (1975). Towards an Applied Theory of experiential learning Theories of Group Processes, 33-57

Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible Selves American Psychologist, 42 (9), 954-969

How can you improve your career prospects whilst developing your own learning? Peter Drucker (1999) in his Harvard Business Review article Managing Oneself advocates a lengthy period of reflection on your actions and the resulting outcomes of it. Drucker suggests that through personal Feedback Analysis we can all understand where our strengths lie and work on improving them. We can also see what skill and knowledge gaps need to be improved on and take action to correct them. Overcoming our intellectual arrogance is a priority as it prevents learning from others and thinking more flexibly.

Drucker argues that it is increasingly important that knowledge workers learn to develop themselves so they can be more effective. Work on remedying your bad habits and develop good inter-personal skills to gain the cooperation of your work colleagues. Also, as Pareto’s Principle states, only work on what matters. Direct the 80% of your action towards the 20% that matters to your learning and development. There is no point wasting time on assignments and tasks that will only result in mediocrity and not star performance.

Another area to focus on is how you perform. How do you learn and work in your job? Are you a reader or listener or writer? Personally speaking, I see myself as a writer and talker. I make notes on paper and on my text books. Any book that I read I have to annotate with my own marks and diagrams. I find I remember more by writing things down and then discussing the ideas with others for alternative viewpoints. It is also important to work out whether you work best with others or alone; as a leader or deputy; or better in a large or small organisation. Knowing where you belong is extremely important.

Furthermore understanding your personal values system can help you perform much more effectively. Your personal values need to be compatible with those of the organisation you work for otherwise you will only become frustrated. Drucker believes that successful careers develop when people are prepared for opportunities because they know their strengths, their method of work, and their values. Only then can a person make a difference to themselves and the organisation they belong to.

In making a difference, the results need to be SMART and meaningful. The results should also be visible and measurable. From this standpoint, a course of action will develop. Another important consideration is the impact others may have on your objectives. Knowing your co-workers and their strengths and weaknesses can help you work more effectively with them. It is also important to communicate well. Tell people what you are doing and what you are hoping to achieve. Organisations are made up of people; it’s your responsibility and duty to gain the cooperation and trust of your co-workers through developing good working relationships.

Overall, I found Drucker’s advice actionable and I intend to audit my strengths and embark on more feedback analysis both on a personal level and with others. I also think it is important that I explore my value system so that I can understand where I fit into the world following the completion of my Masters. However, Drucker’s advice is based on anecdotal evidence in this article and not backed-up by hard statistical “facts”. This is slightly worrying for me as acting on someone’s own anecdotal evidence may not be appropriate for my needs or situation.

Obviously I accept that Drucker had an illustrious academic career, but most of what he says seems like common sense rather than “proved” by research. On one hand I believe that as individuals we have choices and responsibilities, but depending on your “professional” career, some people have more choice than others. For instance, I’m fortunate to be able to study full-time and spend time writing my blog and reflecting on my learning. Many people don’t have the luxury of being able to undertake postgraduate study, nor have enough autonomy in their role to direct what assignments they will take on.

I remember an interview situation with a prospective employer where I was asked for an example of a situation in which I turned something negative into a positive result through personal leadership. After I ran through my own anecdotal situation, I was then told that organisations can’t have too many leaders insinuating that too much personal autonomy would not work at that organisation! If Drucker is right that knowledge workers have to manage themselves and behave like their own Chief Executive Officer, personal goals are likely to conflict with the goals of the organisation and other work colleagues. How one balances this dichotomy is no doubt an art rather than a science in my view.

References:
Drucker, F. P. (1999). Managing Oneself Harvard Business Review (March)

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I experienced a great OU Res-School at Lane End Conference Centre, Buckinghamshire, over the weekend just gone. I caught-up with fellow B830 tutor group members and some previous module colleagues. I was a member of Richard’s tutor group and also a member of a randomly generated learning set group formed to work through all our EBI proposals.

This EBI bullet-proofing process required us to map who we perceived as main EBI stakeholders on our power-interest matrices, define our EBI with the key issues outlined, and explore potential areas of theory relevant to our chosen EBIs.

I have decided to focus on a personal and very individually-focused EBI. I feel that I need to analyse my skill set, family commitments and employment opportunities in detail and work out the best career pathway for me. The best way of doing this, I believe, is to audit my work experience and competencies with a career coach. I have already had one session with David at C2 Careers and I already have some action points to work on following the meeting.

At the moment, I feel a bit like Dorothy traversing the Yellow Brick road to the Emerald City in the Wizard of Oz. But instead of one road to Emerald City I have numerous choices and crossroads! I recognise that too much choice is a nice problem to have, but it complicates the process markedly. It doesn’t help when everyone has an opinion on the best way forward depending on their interest in my background and skillset.

Right now I feel that I need to follow a very divergent process in order to explore and narrow down my choices. I can see this process of self-discovery being extremely iterative as I work through my options and converge on a suitable pathway. I think I’m likely to follow the Buffalo 6-stage creative problem solving process during my EBI. I already feel that I am at stage two of the divergent fact-finding part: discovering suitable work structures and work opportunities for me following the completion of the OU MBA.

As part of my career audit I think that I can use the CV Plus method mentioned by Dealtry (2004) in his article The Savvy Learner. He believes that existing and prospective managers need to establish where they are in their learning-to-learn journey. He argues that CV Plus is a diagnostic self-appraisal tool that provides a framework of six core areas (Family, Location, Education, Work Experience, Social Activity, and Political Opinion) in order to help an individual work through their past learning experience and ideology. By mapping the learning progress from birth to adulthood, without thinking of a particular job or industry influencing the self-analysis, it is hoped that an individual can understand how they arrived at their present career path.

Dealtry believes it is important that an individual knows three main things about themselves in relation to their learning journey: their learning styles profile, learning diagnostics and team profile. He states that knowing the learning self leads to the recognition in differences in behaviour in those people we work with and live with. But this insight needs to be managed within the context of the influences that affect an individual’s learning development such as job context, culture, methods of learning etc and their own strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Fundamentally, Dealtry argues that an individual’s learning-to-learn journey is about managing all the stakeholders involved in the learning experience: the learner, the organisation, and also work colleagues, family and learning providers. We do not learn in a vacuum. Furthermore, how an individual shifts his/her world-view paradigm after discovering new ideas can markedly impact others and the way they are perceived by them. It’s important to recognise the changes in you and the positive or negative impact it may have on your personal or work relationships.

References:

Dealtry R. (2004) “Professional Practice: The Savvy Learner”, The Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol.16 no 1, Emerald Group Publishing, pp 101-109.