28

HR Discussion

It is time to polish those dress shoes

and update your résumé. It is time to

move on from your current organization

and fnd a place that appreciates you

more. After all, you have dreams. You

have aspirations. You have a career

path you have been following since

you graduated high school. It is time for

action. But wait! Before you pull up Word

to start editing your outdated résumé,

follow these three “must do” strategies

to ensure success.

1) Core Personality Review Take an honest look at your core

personality and what really makes you

tick. And, no, I do not mean falling back

on your desire to be a chief executive

offcer, technical expert, or high-

powered salesperson. You need to

spend some introspective time fnding

out what role is going to be a good ft for

your core personality. Start with some

online personality assessments such as

DiSC, Myers-Briggs, Predictive Index,

and many others. Find one that appeals

to you, take the time to go through the

assessment, and spend quality time with

the results.

Personally, I am a fan of the DiSC

personality assessment, where

the letters stand for D–Dominant,

i–infuence, S–Steadiness, or C–

Conscientiousness.It is simple: You will

fnd you are either a D, i, S, or C style.

Once you have your results, you will

have a better understanding of “why”

you like certain work situations and

avoid or dislike other situations.

To take this step to the next level, I

encourage you to do some additional

research to fnd a career coach in

your local area, or someone who can

work with you remotely. Employing a

career coach will give you someone

with whom you can discuss your next

career move and the results of your

personality assessment. My coaching

clients who have taken this extra step

have been incredibly happy with their

subsequent career move, even if it

meant staying in their current role with

a new mind-set.

2) Journaling on a Clean Sheet of Paper The frst time a work colleague

suggested I do some journaling about

a work issue I was faced with, I looked

at him like he had two heads. After all,

I was above the need to write about my

feelings, was I not? But after another

week or two of frustration over the work

issue and my inability to move things

in a positive direction, I decided to

listen to my colleague’s advice. I pulled

out a fresh pad of paper, one of my

favorite pens, and sat down in a quiet

room to start journaling. Thirty minutes

passed quickly as I started an outline,

jotted down thoughts and opinions,

and doodled in the margins. When the

alarm on my phone signaled my next

meeting was ready to start, I looked

down at my now-full sheet of paper

and realized I had just given myself a

number of “ah-ha” moments about my

issue. I walked out of the room feeling

empowered to take some action to

resolve the situation positively in which

the parties could feel we had come to a

win-win-win solution.

Embracing the art of journaling

is a great tool for everyone in any

stage of their career—life, school, or

retirement. Taking the time to write your

thoughts, impressions, hopes, desires,

and concerns in a private notebook or

Evernote application or Word document

is therapeutic and revealing. Over

the next 21 days, if you set aside just 5

minutes a day in the morning, during

an afternoon break, or before retiring

for the night, you will be surprised at

the clarity of mind you will gain, the joy

you will feel in the discipline in such a

private practice, and the life-altering

thoughts you will fnd written on your

clean sheet of paper.

3) Career Walk: What Inspires You? When I started my consulting business

in 2011, I looked back at the jobs I had

performed throughout my career in

human resources (HR). To my surprise,

I was not inspired by the high-powered,

corporate HR jobs in which I was

responsible for a large team. The job

that suited my personality best, and

where I had the most fun, was a job I

held at a large insurance company. I

was one of a team of HR professionals

tasked with transforming the insurance

claim organization. It was a diffcult job

because we were faced with changing

roles, eliminating poor performers, and

interviewing current employees for

Three Strategies To Make Your Next

Career Move the Best EverNancy Furbee, Furbee and Associates

Nancy Furbee has more than 20 years of leadership

experience in all facets of the human resources profession.

Furbee has certifcations in Everything DiSC Personality

Assessments and Compression Planning Facilitation. She holds

a master’s degree in human resources management and a

bachelor’s in fnance from La Roche College, and is a graduate

of Leadership Pittsburgh.

29Vol. 12 // No. 1 // 2016

newly created jobs. But with my energy

and drive, I was in heaven.

I used my empathy for others

to look at the transformation from

their perspectives, and as a result,

I was successful in helping to lead

the organization through a major

transformation over several years.

My hours were long, my work

was unpredictable, I had to think

on my feet, and I could not have

been happier.

Here is how you can easily fnd

your true inspiration: Draw yourself a

Y- and an X-axis. On the vertical axis,

use the scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being

“Not Inspired” and 10 being “Most

Inspired.” On the horizontal axis, start

with the earliest age you can remember

and take it out to the right to reach your

current age. Along the horizontal axis,

list your education and each of your jobs.

Quickly, without thinking too much, plot

each position/role along the vertical

Inspire axis. Go with your gut reaction as

you think through which jobs provided

you with the most inspiration.

You should soon see some patterns

emerging. Which of your jobs did you

rate highest during your career walk?

Were you in a leadership role? Were

you responsible for large budgets and

multinational teams? Were you a solo

contributor responsible for your own

work? Were you in a technical role?

Were you able to use your education

and training?

Was the work totally unrelated

to your education? Were you in a

role in which you had to think on the

fy and make things up as you went

along? Were you to follow a well-

written script and work a set number

of hours per day? Were you putting

in a crazy number of hours but

incredibly happy because it did not

feel like work?

There are no wrong answers! This

is your career walk. Taking the time to

fgure out what inspires you the most

is key to making your next move a

wise move.

I rated the transformational role in

the insurance company as a 10 when

it came to inspiration. As a result of

the self-awareness I gained through

my career walk, I was able to design

my own consulting business to target

clients needing the same type of work

I performed. And, I can honestly say

I am always inspired when helping

organizations and individuals transform

themselves. I rarely feel like I am going

to work.

Take the time to follow these

three strategies. Once you are done,

you will have a better idea of where

your next career move is going to

take you.  You may end up in a new

organization, starting your own business,

or traveling the globe in a new sales role.

However, you may fnd that you are

polishing your dress shoes and updating

your résumé to better impress those

in your current organization. After all,

you know the people and now you know

yourself, how to work through your

issues, and what inspires you. Go out

and fnd it. And, do not be surprised

if it is right under your nose—in your

current role. TWA

Your Best Shot

Keeps nodding for the black fuel. Location: Alberta, Canada

Photo by Meiliza Fitri, petroleum and natural gas engineering, energy and

resources engineering department, Chonnam National University, South Korea.

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