Making the most out of life's CHANGES: Here's how to effectively weather times of transitions in your career!

Tuesday: Return Driven Strategy FROM THE DESK OF MILES EVERSON: As someone who’s been in the business and consulting industry for 30+ years now, I truly find Return Driven Strategy (RDS) effective in managing my team. Discussed in detail in the book, “Driven,” RDS is a pyramid-shaped framework that has 11 tenets and 3 foundations. When applied properly to your business strategy, this framework can help you achieve wealth and value creation. Another thing I personally like about this framework? It’s applicable to the microlevel. Just apply the tenets and foundations to one’s career and you have Career Driven Strategy (CDS). Today, let’s focus on change management in the context of CDS. Keep reading to know how you can maintain a positive disposition even as you’re going through changes in your personal life and career. CEO, MBO Partners Chairman of the Advisory Board, The I Institute

Making the most out of life's CHANGES: Here's how to effectively weather times of transitions in your career! Life is a state of constant change. Sometimes, that change is positive; sometimes, it’s negative. … but does it have to put you in a position of distress? Today, we’ll talk about how to properly deal with changes and make the most out of them in your career. Handling Change “Gracefully” in Your Work Life When a career shift means leaving behind your beloved colleagues and familiar work surroundings, the most common tendency is to have mixed feelings and doubts about your move. This is true not just for changes you don’t want and are only forced to do so. You can also experience having reservations and feeling all kinds of emotions when going through a change you want. After all, no one can be certain about the future. At one point, you’d ask yourself if it’s truly the right thing to do or the right path to take. That’s why when you’re moving in a new direction—whether that’s in the form of a new business or a new job at a new company—you have to learn to manage change properly. When done right, this will help you: Trust yourself more Accept the fact that you deserve improvements in your life Know and act on your values, needs, and wants Accept your mistakes and learn from them Let go of the need to always control the outcome of your decisions While accepting changes can be challenging, you still have the power to manage and approach them positively. Having a positive response to these situations will reduce your overall stress. So… what can you do to effectively weather times of transitions in your career? Reflect on your decisions. Making a career change, no matter how big or small, can be scary for some people. The first step to “gracefully” embrace times of transitions? Give yourself time to reflect on your worries and identify what’s specifically causing your anxiety. Journaling or talking to your trusted friends or family members are excellent outlets for this. By trying these options to reflect on your feelings, you help yourself define what you’re experiencing more concretely and identify possible solutions or pathways going forward. Communicate and collaborate. Communication is important in the workplace AND especially in times of transitions. Articulating your concerns about changes in your job to your manager or supervisor can help them implement changes in a more informed and sensitive way. What’s more? With change comes opportunities to work together to shape new organizational directions and create collaborative environments. In other words, using communication to maximize areas of collaboration allows both individuals and teams to move forward with a greater sense of ownership of the changes at hand. Stay positive and flexible. American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist Maya Angelou once said: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” This means the lens through which you view a change in your career can greatly affect how you approach and experience it. That’s why it’s important to stay positive as this will help reduce your stress and anxiety, and make you more likely to see opportunities for personal and professional growth. Additionally, exercising flexibility in times of transitions promotes a smoother and more conflict-free process in the long run. This also includes accepting and learning from mistakes committed along the way. Practice wellness. It’s no secret that times of change are stress-inducing and often have physical effects on the body. That’s why it’s important to practice wellness during such situations to counter the negative effects on your physical and mental health. This includes: Eating a balanced diet Practicing mindfulness Meditating Exercising … and others. Implementing these practices into your daily or weekly routine can help you combat stress and embrace change more smoothly, and with your overall health intact. Change Management and Career Driven Strategy (CDS) In CDS, Professor Joel Litman and Dr. Mark L. Frigo ask: If you weren’t already in your current career/job, would you enter it today? And if the answer is no, what are going to do about it?” Then, using the CDS framework, they explain the importance of defining your personal “wealth” and your unique capabilities, abilities, and intentions to make the necessary changes in improving your career and personal life. This means to truly achieve a career-driven strategy, you have to think and act strategically about your work choices. By applying Professor Litman and Dr. Frigo’s teachings in CDS, you’ll be able to ask the right questions and think differently about your goals and activities. These will then help you manage changes more effectively and ethically create wealth by fulfilling others’ needs while having a rewarding work life and personal life. Keep these tips and insights in mind as you deal with changes—big or small—in your career! By reminding yourself of your ultimate motivation and purpose for work, you’ll regain your perspective and generate new, productive ways to move forward in your life. Hope you found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. Follow us on LinkedIn. Stay tuned for next Tuesday’s Return Driven Strategy! What does “innovation” mean for you? Learn more about the true essence of innovation in next week’s article!