articles for November, 2006:
2006 December Newsletter (US)
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2006 December Newsletter (Canada)
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Tips For Professional Mothers Returning To Work – Tips 7 & 8
Tip #7 – Networking Revisited
I spoke about the importance of networking in tip #2 and wanted to revisit the topic again to go over some important points as well as highlight some logistics in being a successful networker.
Business woman with mobile
As we head into another busy fall season, it is the perfect time to ensure you get involved in networking activities. These can be anything – a formal event at a professional association or career fair, or informal socializing at a dinner party, even your dentist office. The point is to be involved in activities that are not always related to your kids. Making it a habit of letting people know that you are looking to get back into the workforce is great for a few reasons. Firstly, it will solidify your decision to go back to work. Once you start saying things out loud it is your first step to achieving the goal. Second, most people will have some sort of advice or will offer to keep your intentions in mind. Often people might hear about a vacancy soon after you talked and you are still at the top of their thoughts. It doesn't mean that it will be your dream job, but just knowing that people are out there with an eye on opportunities helps with the process. Third, you can get referrals to other people you can connect with. How many times have you even heard yourself say to someone that you don't know of anything off hand, but that they should connect with your friend "Joe" who might have some ideas.
Networking is an ongoing process that requires review and follow up. As with anything, you get out of it what you put into it. Review the events you attended last year (whether formal or informal) and list who you met. Has there been any outcome of that connection? This is a good time to ditch those events that were a waste of your time (which is a precious commodity) and switch to those with more promise. When networking, a good tip is to write the date and event where you met someone on the back of their business card along with a note that will help you remember them. When you follow up it could possibly provide you with an icebreaker to the conversation. Speaking of follow up – keep in touch with the people you meet with whom you'd like to maintain a relationship. This doesn't mean that you need to become best friends, but a follow up coffee or lunch a few weeks or a month later will solidify the brief conversation you had at the networking session.
A general rule of thumb is that successful networking will provide a Return on Investment in about 4 – 6 months (sometimes longer). People that you meet don't necessarily have the job or opportunity that you are looking for at the time you are looking, but eventually the stars will be aligned. When they are, you want to be top of mind so that they think of you and not someone else.
Successful networking takes perseverance with a pinch of panache. With practice and persistence, it can become second nature.
Tip #8 – Work Life Balance
If anyone has defined the true meaning of "Work Life Balance" please let me know. Work life balance has become such a ubiquitous buzzword and part of our culture that I believe it has lost it's meaning. It seems like everyone these days is searching for work life balance. In fact, this is no longer just a working mother phenomenon, but spreading to the larger working population. What does seem to be a commonality is that no one seems to have found it. Research, studies, articles and informal surveys all state that work life balance is the biggest source of stress at work.
There are of course several reasons for this: demographic shifts (sandwich generation), dual income households (leading to less time at home), cultural changes (less walking to school, more playdates) etc. I have a theory that another reason for the rising stress of work life balance is that many people tend to define the balance at its face value (ie. 50% of your time devoted to work and 50% of your time for life). For most, this is an impossible goal and leaves people unsatisfied with both their work and life environments.
Which leads me to a simple exercise to help you through the first step towards achieving work life balance. Start with redefining the term to be work life effectiveness or work life flexibility. This should allow you to think of it in a new light. Work life balance means different things to different people, and not enough people have taken the time to define the term for themselves.
Defining your own work life balance will help you when you are re-entering the workforce. This is no different than defining what is important to you in your company role. Work life balance is only a piece of your broad definition of career. Realizing what your needs are is the first step in selecting or eliminating options for your reentry into the workforce. Some questions to consider are:
- Is location of your job important? For some there are daycare / school drop offs and pick ups to consider.
- Is part time a necessity? Are you easing back in gently? Do you want to be with your kids while they are in school?
- How much travel can you accommodate in your role / life? Can you leave your other obligations behind while you are out of town?
- What sort of benefits does the company offer with respect to flexible work arrangements (FWA's)? Are there negative consequences to using FWA's?
- What are your goals with respect to career advancement? Is your goal to get ahead and climb the corporate ladder as quickly as possible?
- What sort of overtime does the job entail? Are you able to handle unpredictable overtime schedules with your home responsibilities?
The answers to those questions will help point you down a more balanced path. Remember, work life balance initiatives come in many forms. For some, it will mean starting your own business, or taking on more of a consulting role. For others it means getting back into a company that has flexible work arrangements, or perhaps working full time and hiring help on the homefront.
Whatever the solution is, it will likely be yours alone. Work life balance is not generic and it certainly is not 50% work and 50% life. Figure out your needs and be prepared to be flexible to give and take. The solution is as unique as you are!
Moms Spotlight – Winnie Tam
Winnie Tam
Vancouver Program Director
LifeSpeak Inc.
Provider of the Parents At Work™, Vitality At Work™ and Generations At Work™ programs
1) Provide an overview of your job, how many hours you work.
As Vancouver Program Director for LifeSpeak Inc., I work for a dynamic and rapidly growing national organization which designs and delivers a series of workplace workshops on topics ranging from parenting and eldercare to personal health and vitality. LifeSpeak is highly supportive of work-family commitments. Working with LifeSpeak provides a great deal of flexibility allowing me to work three days a week from my home office. My main responsibilities include developing and managing the Vancouver speaker roster of experts for LifeSpeak's Parents At Work™, Generations At Work™ and Vitality At Work™ programs; managing client accounts; coordinating workshops; and assisting with business development.
2) Provide an overview of your home life, how many children you have, childcare arrangement, if married your husbands career and how you share the responsibilities at home.
My husband, Wai, and I have one daughter, Avery, who is turning three years old in February. Avery attends daycare two days a week and spends one day with her grandparents. Wai works full-time as a project manager for one of Canada's largest telecommunications companies. Although his hours are fairly regular, he is sometimes required to be accessible during evenings and weekends. Wai and I have organized our responsibilities at home so that they are mostly shared. We communicate as much as possible about our work schedules so that one of us takes responsibility for Avery if the other has a work engagement. We try to keep our home life simple so that we can focus when we're working and enjoy each other when we're together as a family.
3) Would you work if you did not have to.
Absolutely! I find a great deal of fulfillment in my career. I have discovered that maintaining a balance of being a professional and being a parent makes me feel more satisfied. Although being a mother is always going to be my number one occupation, I do love my work and have more to give my daughter because of the outside stimulation I receive from working.
4) Of your female friends with children how many of them continue to work now that they have children.
Among my friends, 95% of them have continued to work now that they have children, although some of them have chosen to reduce their work schedule to part-time, as I have.
5) Can you offer any advice for achieving a balance between your family life and your career.
There is no magic solution for finding balance–it is different for each person and each family. However, the main piece of advice I can give is about being honest and true to yourself: know what your values are and find ways to support those, know what makes you happy so that you are taking care of your needs first, and know when to ask for help!
Tips for Professional Mothers Returning to Work – Tips 4 – 6
Tip #4 What are your unique strengths?
Consider this question carefully. Can you really answer it? Let me ask it another way.
- What are your natural talents?
- What have you always been good at and naturally inclined to do easily?
- When people tell you that they can't believe how good you are at a certain task or way of working, what is it they are referring to?
- What do your colleagues, friends, and family say about you?
- What do you do that you don't think is a strength because it comes to you so easily?
Strength is defined as Knowledge + Skills + Talent. "The key to building a bona fide strength is to identify dominant talents and refine them with knowledge and skill." Follow This Path by Coffman and Conzalez-Molina 2002.
Often these traits are the things that people admire in you. These are the things that make you unique. I'm sure it is easy for you to list off these traits in other people that you know. Now think of it in terms of yourself.
I highly recommend Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham & Donald O. Clifton. The book defines talent as "any recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied." It describes in detail 34 strength based themes based on 25 years of research by the Gallup Organization of more than two million psychological profiles. You are given a code in the book to complete an online self-assessment that will identify your five top strengths. This helps you assess what you are truly naturally gifted at.
A person who understands their unique strengths can more easily identify roles that they would be well positioned for. Being able to articulate these strengths and support with tangible examples will put you ahead of the pack when it comes to career search, reentering the workforce, and interviewing.
Once again, this ties right back to Tip #1 – Understand Yourself. Often we take ourselves for granted. We just don't take the time to really get to know ourselves. Life is an ongoing series of self-discoveries. We are continuing to build our personalities and experiences and along the way sometimes forget to stop, debrief and understand who we are based on those experiences. What are your unique strengths? Once you know what they are you will be able to identify where you can go and grow the most.
Tip #5 Practically Speaking
Now that you have read through Tip #4, What Are Your Unique Strengths, the next step is learning how to get that message across. Can you clearly articulate where you have been, what you have done, what you were responsible for, and what you accomplished? Can you do this in a way that will make someone want to jump over the table and hire you immediately?
Although it is currently a tight market with a labour shortage, employers are still looking for the right person for their company. If you have an interview or are meeting with someone informally, that is often your only chance to make a lasting and positive impression. Talking about yourself is not something you do very often. However if you are prepared, you will find it easy to do. When you think about it, you are your most knowledgeable topic. Being able to discuss yourself confidently and articulately is a skill not to be underestimated or taken lightly.
Two themes of this tip are "message" and "tone". Getting your message across with the right tone can ensure a successful interview.
"Message" means articulating your skills by highlighting how you've used them in your accomplishments. A tool that I recommend to my candidates use is a Skills Matrix. On the top horizontal axis make a list of skills and competencies that you have. On the vertical axis, list various projects or tasks that you have worked on over your career. For each project or task, identify which skill you used to complete the activity. This matrix is something that you should keep with you throughout your career and add to on a regular basis. This way, when a company is looking for someone with a particular skill set, not only will you be able to show you have it but you can also provide the interviewer with tangible examples where you used the skill to accomplish a task.
"Tone" is a little more subjective. It is something that will be assessed with fit when you are looking to join a company. How can you articulate your desire to be in the new role and yet communicate that you have other responsibilities to your family? Can you still sound committed? I believe the answer is yes. As mothers, we are experts at flexibility and making things work. Sometimes the issue is to convince the employer that you are just as committed to the role as your single counterparts. The need to convince employers of this will likely diminish as our demographic trends continue with the workforce getting closer to retirement.
A survey on hiring and advancement in August 2006 by NFI Research, a U.S.-based research firm that identifies and analyzes trends and attitudes in business and organizational management, found the following: Nearly three-quarters (72.5%) of senior executives and managers say personally they rely on likelihood of fit when hiring and/or promoting in their business. More than three-fifths (69.4%) of senior executives and managers say interviews are what they rely on when hiring and/or promoting in their business, as well as willingness to learn (68.9%), personality/"likeability" (63.1%), and skills (61.7%).
Remember to give your message with an appropriate tone – it is the fine line between "This is why the company should hire Me." and "Here is how I can use my skills to contribute to this company." Being a contributor and a person who adds value are things that companies search for. Skills can be taught but attitude cannot.
Tip #6 Professional Development
It is time to start thinking about "Back to School". School isn't only for kids. We are all life long learners and professional development is a great way to keep you up to date.
Some professional designations require that their members maintain a certain number of PD hours each year. If you are off on maternity leave, you will likely still be required to keep up those hours. For those people who are not mandated to attend PD, it is a good habit to get into.
Professional development doesn't have to specifically focus on certain topics (unless it is required). Individually, professional development should be a personal choice. As long as you feel that you are getting some benefit out of it, it is a worthwhile exercise.
As a child my single mother worked, raised two kids, and went to school. When we were driving from Alberta to BC in the summers we would listen to motivational speaker tapes. My mother never stops learning – a lesson she modeled and taught me at an early age.
Different aspects of professional development you can consider are:
- Taking courses related to your industry
- Taking courses aimed at specific skill sets such as leadership, self awareness, public speaking, or business development
- Taking courses that are more general in nature such as entrepreneurial classes or general business
- Courses can be found through your industry association or through local colleges
The options are endless.
There are many benefits to PD courses:
- They keep you up to date
- They are an excellent opportunity to network
- They can provide contacts for future opportunities
- They add to your resume and keep it current even though there may be a gap in the work history
- They get you out of the house and does something for YOU
- They keep your mind fresh with non-toddler related material
- They provide you with new information that gives you energy
It can be a time of year when I spend hours on the internet researching which ballet school is the best option for my three year old (please someone put me out of my misery). However, a similar amount of time can be spent researching what courses will give you the benefits mentioned above.
The number one thing that candidates tell me they look for in a role is the opportunity to learn new things and continue to be challenged. Professional Development is a chance for you to take the time to do it for yourself. And of course – don't forget your back to school shopping trip!
Stay Tuned! More tips to come soon…
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- 2006 December Newsletter (US)
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- A Blueprint for Balance: Defining your Individual Course for Life
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