Reach for the Stars or How to Set Goals and Reach Them
We often talk about the importance of identifying and defining our goals. This applies to both our personal and work lives. We set goals to lose weight, learn a new language, and land that new job or to make that change in our life or career that we have thought about so long.
Reach for the stars and land in the tree tops is one way of defining a goal. It’s wonderful as a philosophy, but too vague to be a project management tool. We need to find ways to bring the philosophy down to earth to make it soar above those tree tops.
First we need to define the end goal, and then divide it into smaller and attainable goals or steps to be completed so as to reach the end goal. And both the end goal and the interim goals should be SMART goals!
Setting SMART goals is a commonly used strategy in both project and people management, but can also be effective for your own job search strategy, or for implementing change. According to Wikipedia, the concept was first described by George Doran in the November 1981 issue of the Management Review magazine. It has grown increasingly popular since.
SMART goals are: S – Specific; M – Measurable; A -Attainable; R -Relevant; T- Timely. What does this mean for your life and career goals?
Specific: Set hands-on, detailed goals by asking the following questions: What, Why, Who, and Where, include a question on possible obstacles or requirements. What job do you want? Why do you want to work in a specific organization? Who can help you get there? Where are the opportunities?
Measurable: Make the goals measurable so you can identify successes and needs for development. The core questions are: How much, How many, How often and How to know when I reached my goal? For example, how many networking meetings will I attend and jobs will I apply for weekly? How many hours a day will I spend on my job search?
Attainable: Are your goals realistic and meaningful? Are they achievable? The trick is to stay positive but realistic. Set reachable and challenging goals so you feel accomplishment when you succeed. Core questions are: do I have the necessary skills, experience and connections? If not, then focus on improving them so you can attain your goals.
Relevant: Are your goals relevant to the life and career you have or want to have? If not, then reevaluate them and revise. If you have trouble assessing the relevance, ask yourself if the action will give you new skills, required experience and new connections needed to further your career and most importantly if it will meet your needs and passions!
Timely: A realistic time frame makes a difference! It keeps us focused as it prevents everyday urgencies and responsibilities from taking over our life. Core questions are: by when must I reach my goal? If I have not attained it by the set date, what then? What are the short-term and long-term goals I need to define and act upon?
Moving to a new country or city, finding a new job or changing jobs, or redefining my life and career balance requires not only skills and experience but also self-awareness and a plan with SMART goals. The concept of SMART goals can be beneficial for any creative, personal and professional project, plan or dream.
Rites of Passages- a New Year’s Eve Meditation
This time of year we often look back at the past 12 months. What took place in the world and in our lives? It has been a turbulent year in many aspects. The global economy continues to be wobbly, there has been social unrest in many places and also Mother Nature reminded us of her powers through earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Add to that your own personal experiences. Maybe you lost your job, found a new one or were promoted? Maybe you left what had been your home for many years, or a short time and moved far, or not so far away? Perhaps someone close to you passed away or is no longer in your life? Maybe someone new has entered your life: a friend, a child or a spouse? Whatever it is, we tend to want to look back at our life and find meaning and purpose in it as we approach the transition into a new year.
I find it fascinating that we as humans have a need to create times of transition and celebrate or mark them with rituals, so called rites of passage; such as end of summer celebrations (Labor Day in the US, Venetian Evening in Ostrobothnia in Finland where I grew up), coming of age rituals (Bar and Bat Mitzvah, Sweet 16, Confirmation), or funeral traditions. It seems to be an innate need we have as human beings, but why?
I lost my father recently and the meaning of a funeral as a rite of transition has been on my mind. What is the transition in a funeral? The funeral is the rite when we by remembering and honoring the life of the deceased simultaneously allow the surviving family and friends to openly grieve the loss of the loved one and thus help them move on. The grieving process is longer than a funeral, of course, but the role of the funeral rite is to encourage us to mentally and emotionally begin the process of letting go of the deceased. The funeral is really the beginning of a new phase in our lives.
New Years Eve celebrations are also a rite of passage when we mark the end of a phase in our personal lives and the beginning of a new one. We will add or celebrate another anniversary of our birth in the New Year, we will file taxes according to the annual cycle, our society is constructed around our concept of time and would not function without it (remember the panic at the New Year transition 1999-2000?). But it is really a human creation, created by us to help us understand and create meaning in our existence.
Now let us adapt this concept to more common events in our personal lives, such as leaving a job or moving to a new region or country. They are both significant events in our lives, but sometimes we fail to remember that. We are used to seeing weddings, childbirth and funerals as significant lifetime events, but ignore how important the more mundane times of transitions are.
Losing a job is significant. It entails missing colleagues who also are friends, it entails the loss of core aspects of our identity and for many the loss of the feeling of being part of a group, a community, and the society at large. Not to mention the loss of financial security and plans for the future.
We need rites of passages for losing a job! Maybe some of you have them? You go out for drinks and dinner with colleagues and friends; you take time off to travel or focus on a longtime dream project, such as building a boat.
If you have lost or left a job or relocated globally, have a rite of passage! Create your own! Next allow yourself the time to miss and grieve your previous life; your friends, the house, the climate, the job, your office, and perhaps your daily routine. Then begin the processes of creating a new life for you. Explore your opportunities; be open to your thoughts, feelings and dreams and, experiment.
Not all career transitions and global relocation are painful. Maybe you were excitedly looking forward to the change, to a new beginning, just as many of us look forward to a New Year with new possibilities. Seize that positive energy and conserve some of it (keep a diary of thoughts and feelings, for example) for times later in the transition when life may feel like an uphill battle and the first enthusiasm for the New Year, the new career, new home, new country or new project has waned.
Be Too Connected to Fail
In one of my workshops for expatriate spouses in the NY area we discuss networking or the concept of creating and maintaining career connections.
We usually launch the workshop by sharing what “to network” means to me, how it is defined and what the networking do’s and don’ts are in my country of origin and compare it to how networking is defined and done in the USA . In the process we also learn to better understand how culture shapes how people look for and find work.
Here are a few examples: According to a spouse from Nigeria, networking is an open secret. This means that in general everyone knows that jobs are found through networking and relatives help each other, but it is not openly talked about or recognized (as in the US). My Kenyan, Bulgarian and South Korean participants agreed. Networking for a job is semi-hidden and indirect were words they used to describe it. The Swedish and British participants agreed with it being carried out indirectly, and that friends and family play an important role. They even mentioned that contacting people you do not know well directly and openly to ask for career advice and job leads would result in losing face or making a fool of yourself.
Who is it appropriate to network with as part of your global job search, according to my workshop participants? In South Korea the school or university you attended plays an important role in defining your network together with your hometown or region. The same seems to be true for Nigeria. Family, close friends and relatives are the pillars of your network in Bulgaria, Kenya, Sweden and Britain.
So with this anecdotal story in mind, how do we create and maintain global career connections?
A. RELATIONSHIPS
1. By nurturing the friendships we have developed over the years, especially if as an expatriate we have moved several times across the globe.
2. By maintaining family ties, so important for our own mental and emotional well-being and, as the examples show, our careers.
3. By keeping in touch with alumni from schools we attended and colleagues from previous jobs we held.
B. CULTURE
1. By being open and curious about others and reaching out to fellow expatriates and locals as we arrive to a new duty station or destination. By being mindful about our own assumptions and heritage.
2. By researching the local cultural patterns through books, workshops, movies, art and with the help of a cultural informant.
3. By knowing the structure of the local job market, where to find jobs, how to identify the key players in a specific industry, organization or office, and understanding specific hiring practices.
C. TOOLS AND STRATEGY
1. Use the Internet! LinkedIN, Facebook and multiple online communities have revolutionized how we live and the nature of our relationships, intimate and distant, personal and professional.
2. Be careful about blending personal and professional online networks. You may wish to use LinkedIN for professional contacts and Facebook for personal relationships. If your personal and professional online networks are intertwined, be mindful about what information you share. How much do you want a possible future employer or colleague to know about you?
3. Create new face-to-face connections at meetings of local professional associations, your religious congregation, your gym or soccer league, or by volunteering your time or skills at a cultural, social, or academic non-profit organization.
D. NETWORKING IN THE USA (a brief intro)
1. It is OPEN and DIRECT (search Amazon, Google or your local bookstore and you find thousands or resources and handbooks).
2. It is acceptable to reach out to an acquaintance or a friend of a friend of a friend to ask for career advice (but it is advisable to have a spokesperson to introduce the two of you).
3. It is based on a WIN-WIN philosophy. If I help you now, you can help me later and so forth. This is the core idea of the American business culture. As popularized by Maria Bartiromo in her latest book The Weekend that Changed Wall Street, the banks in financial trouble were Too Connected to Fail. Your career should be the same!
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The Opportunity and Challenge in Moving
One of my workshop participants once said that it feels as she left her best self in her country of origin and that her current version of her self is inferior: less self confident, successful and happy. Professionally she does not feel as accomplished and proud.
Moving to a new country, region or even just a new town or city is both an opportunity and a challenge. I have found it refreshing to move to a new location, even for a short period of time. As an exchange student in France in my mid 20s I felt as if my life was an empty sheet of paper with limitless opportunities for writing a new personal story. Leaving my safe and predictable life in college behind opened new opportunities for me to explore who I am, who I want to be and how to transform. My move to the US from Finland in my late 20s was my ultimate leap of faith. I had another chance to start anew, to explore a new country, new friends and create new goals and dream up new dreams. It has been challenging, but worthwhile. I have learned tremendously.
This is the thrilling aspect of moving and leaving the known and safe behind. It is a wonderful opportunity to create something new, but requires that you remain open to exploring and learning more about yourself and the world.
One key factor to my positive experiences moving across the world is that I was in control. I initiated the move through my own wishes and actions. I was young and single without a family to care for. I was not forced to move because of political, economical or financial reasons or because of my partner’s job. These issues immediately complicate a transition.
Global relocation has been a very different experience for my workshop participant. She followed her spouse to his new job and has children to care for. Her circle of control is much narrower and more people’s well-being depends on how she feels about and adjusts to the new country. Her professional identity is weakened as she has left those who know her accomplishments and career story behind on the other side of the world. In her new city, few know her professional successes and her reputation.
What can we do to facilitate a transition to a new country or city? Research has shown that personality traits such as how you handle uncertainty and change influence the success of the relocation. How much were you involved in the decision making process prior to the move? Have your spouse and his/her employer listened to your needs and attempted to meet them? How do your children feel about the move? How much do you know about the country you are relocating to, it’s history, culture, language, schools and job market?
If you know that change and uncertainty are difficult for you, take time to prepare as much as possible prior to the move. Try to gather information about your new home. Give yourself plenty of time to process your thoughts and feelings related to the upcoming change. Talk to people you trust, your friends, your spouse and your family.
If you are moving with your spouse because of a job assignment, ask the employer to provide assistance finding a home, schools, and career support, if relevant. Demand that your and your family’s needs are taken into account when planning the logistics of relocation. Use the internet and social media to create relationships where you are going and to maintain your relationships with your family, friends and colleagues left behind.
Talk to others who have lived in the same city or region, find a cultural informant. Most of all, try to remain positive and open to new experiences and opportunities to learn. This doesn’t mean ignoring your negative feelings and fears, but it means facing your fears and being open to finding and receiving support to overcome them.
In my next blog I will discuss how to use the internet, social media and networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook to nurture your professional and personal relationships, especially if you are a global nomad with your career in your carry-on.
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