Dynamic Life Creations - Taking Action to Develop and Transform

Knowing if you are value-adding to your company's success?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 06:37:00 +0000

Why would you want to know if you are a value-adding component of your organization? At least for the following two reasons; first is simply to know where you stand in respect to job security, future opportunities including promotion, new challenges and remuneration. The second is to know, for personal development reasons, whether your role actually means anything to anyone, including yourself.

I decided to write on this topic taking into account the economic challenges we are facing in the world today. Many people are being made redundant, there is concern about where new jobs will come from and on top of that there is an issue where the meaning of many roles is becoming very unclear, adding stress to the human resource system.

Without going too deep into the concepts of personal development, engagement and satisfaction from your role within your company I wanted to address the more immediate concern of job security, value of knowledge and skills and future employment prospects. What we are finding in the current economic climate is that many roles are no longer needed and this is leading to either redundancies, people being let go, lack of pay rises or indeed pay reductions. Many of us are finding it hard to cope because lets face it, Gen Y and late Gen Xers have never worked in this kind of environment. We would have never thought that "my skills and knowledge is obselete" and in fact we have something in common with the older generations and their 'job for life concept'. So the question is just how valuable to your organization are your skills and knowledge?

You have to start by being completely honest and looking at both the direction society and your organization is moving. If you have a niche skill, is the demand for that going to continue in the future. An example of this is mortgage broking...sure it will continue to be needed but not to nearly the same degree. The bottom line is that you cannot think your skills will always be needed by your employer, but you also have to remember that they will not tell you that until it's too late.

To be able to ensure your job is safe and be able to request any rise in remuneration you have to make sure you are fulfilling a demand - a demand by both the organization and society. This is the only way to know you are a value-adding component. The work I undertake with my clients is around this very matter...determining the value of someone's current skills and knowledge both now and in the future. Plus more importantly determing what skills and knowledge will be required.

So ask yourself two questions; firstly could my organization replace me easily if I decided to leave today and secondly, what would it mean to my organization's bottom line and performance if my role no longer existed? Answering these honestly will give you a good indication of where you stand. What you then do about it is up to you.

A business or career begins with a dream...but succeeds from a solid foundation

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:26:00 +0000

I'm not sure if it's due to the recent economic crisis...actually let me say economic events as I don't want to be another conveyor of doom and gloom, but I have been reassessing my own skills and personal resources recently. Purpose? To discover what I actually know and what value I provide to society. What I have found in fact is a bit of a wake up call in that whilst I do know certain things I perhaps thought I know more than I actually do.

I'll be the first to admit I have some great career goals in respect to the businesses I want to develop. Lots of goals and objectives supported by motivations but the one thing I needed to do was assess whether I had the ability, knowledge and experience to achieve the goals I wanted when I wanted. Let me tell you it's an interesting exercise to undertaken, particularly when you are brutally honest with yourself.

Let's take for example you want to run a consulting business and you think you know enough to succeed. Can you answer the following questions in a positive way:

1. Do you know more than 80% of competitors?
2. Have you validated the knowledge you need to know to succced?
3. Have you confirmed the above with your potential customers?
4. You might have 'consulting' knowledge but do you have 'financial performance' management knowledge? (that is, the knowledge to run your company finances)
5. Have you undertaken a risk assessment on the impact to your business of negative events e.g. economic downturn. Has this been validated?

See the thing is, it doesn't matter if you are smart as a 'subject matter expert' and have a great dream to go out on your own - if you don't build a solid foundation behind you then you will not succeed. Likewise, you definitely need a great dream to succeed but it is only the start. Failure is achieve by being under-prepared and it is not hard in this fast-paced world to indeed be caught short.

Don't get confused by 'buzz' words on job descriptions

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 21:03:00 +0000

Right now you might have a great idea for a business or have just read an unbelievable job spec for a new role. The feeling you have might be incredibly positive and you are feeling upbeat and eager to explore these opportunities. But ask yourself why do you feel this way?

It is important to be motivated but more importantly it is important to use that motivation to undertake the research necessary when exploring new business or career opportunities. There are a number of reasons why an opportunity might seem attractive but there are also many reasons why not be get confused by an opportunity you do not accurately or correctly understand. It is always easier to walk into something than walk out.

It just so happened to be MBA bashing day on the blogs attached to an article on Marketwatch. Of course with the upheaval in financial markets MBAs were always going to receive some blame in respect to the mess created by the financial engineering that took place. However like all of us MBAs are also people looking to further their career, perhaps be involved in something meaningful and challenging whilst providing for their families. Hey, sure some greed is involved and in this case a disaster has occurred but no one has ever said human beings are perfect. I digress a little, but the point I wanted to make is that many jobs are not what they seem to be. They promise a lot and offer very little - perhaps they offer a lot of money but nothing else. Many of my friends in investment banking would perhaps agree with me....then again after working 18 hour days they may be too tired to read this blog.

Why you need to identify each of the 'components' of your career

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 08:11:00 +0000

Ensuring a successful and rewarding career is not simply about gaining some specific piece of knowledge and then taking on a role that appears to be appropriate. Knowledge is only one component of any career role that you have to take care of and manage - no matter what it is. Depending on the role itself others components (to varying degrees) include;

1. Ongoing demand for that role in the economy/organization

You cannot assume you can continue to perform your current role, in its current form, forever and gain the same financial reward. You need to determine why your role is in demand and ensure you move along with what is and will be required.

2. Leadership and management ability and understanding

This is just not about being a leader or managing others - it's about understanding and having empathy with those who lead and manage you. There are many styles of leadership and management and both as a leader and someone being lead you need to comprehend what is best and how to adapt to the varying styles with which you will be faced.

3. Time and stress management

Put simply, if you do not manage or your time or stress levels then your career performance will suffer. Two key drivers of performance are focus and dedication - being stressed and not allocating time to important tasks will not allow you to be either.

4. Networking

More and more careers are requiring some kind of networking to be undertaken - even if it's inter-departmental. Don't shut yourself off in your cubicle, home office...These days it's very much who you know as much as what you know.

5. Personal presence and confidence

Personality plays a large role in career success, no matter how knowledgeable you are in your role. If you want to progress and develop in and beyond your current role you have to be confident (not cocky or bragging) that you can handle your role and more. This is just not about ensuring promotion in your career. If you wanted a flexible work arrangement for say family reasons, there is even more reason to appear that you are confident you can perform in this situation.

6. Health and well-being

More and more evidence points to the fact that if you are strong physically it will allow your mental capabilities to be fully utilized. Mental health and well-being is also a critical component of performance and you must ensure meditation and relaxation is scheduled into your week.

7. Identification of re-education required

Associated with Point 1, experience will only take you so far - as the world changes, the economy changes and thus demand for goods and services changes. Your knowledge of today will not suffice for what is required tomorrow and you have to ensure you keep yourself up to date - this can mean subject matter knowledge, marketing and sales techniques, IT etc. If you don't, then you run the risk of becoming redundant in terms of skills on offer and career options will be limited.

8. IT ability

You need to assess the basic level of IT skills required now and in the future. This basic level will continue to rise so don't think being young means you automatically know everything required.

9. Perseverence and drive

This is one of the most important components. You need to work hard and smart and don't regard failure at any point as the end of the journey but as part of the journey. Success is not achieved overnight and you cannot assume that once you have achieved one thing that it will not disappear if you don't continue to perform. You need to understand your motivations and values for performing.

If it was only knowledge that was important then those with the highest IQ would have the most successful careers - and this is not the case. Aspects of emotional and social intelligence play a major role in success apart from IQ.

The next three important steps are the following; (1) identifying the rank and percentage of the total current role related to the above components, (2) produce a plan on how to improve your performance of each and (3) do the last two things for your next planned career moves. It's no good finding out you don't know how to drive or drive well when given a car....you have to plan in advance.

Building wealth...and understanding what you're truly worth in the new economy.

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 08:55:00 +0000

Whether you choose to be wealthy or not is completely up to you - but all of us require a certain level of wealth to live. Food, shelter, education, giving to charity and providing for the family...this is the basic expenditure each of us will face during the course of our lives. If you want to live a different lifestyle, assuming the basics are the minimum you will require more wealth - by this I include additional education costs, asset costs (houses, cars), additional health costs etc. So we all know a ballpark figure how much wealth we might like to have...the difficulty is calculating exactly what you will need and then knowing what it will take to achieve it.

The danger around wealth is the concept of having 'too little or too much'. This is pretty much a rule of thumb based on what we think we need, what life costs, what others around us tell us and what we hear on the media. Even going to financial planners (note that I do not consider all planners to be experts) doesn't help that much in this regard because again the use heuristics (fancy word for 'rule of thumb') to assess Rate of Return on assets, life expectancy, inflation etc etc. So I would advise everyone to take a hard, long look at what they think they'll need for the future and calcuate a number in detail.

However one of the biggest disconnects I see around wealth management is knowing how to achieve the wealth number you have calculated in the step above. There are many ways to make money - own business, working for a corporation, investing but there are no guarantees in any business venture, return on investment or career earnings. One of the problems created is that the wealth target is not going to be obtained because the initial calculation was incorrect and the earnings estimate is also not correct. Which gets me to the main point I wish to make - you need to carefully assess your 'economic value' and what that means in respect to potential revenue to be earned. I want to focus initially on those who career is within a corporation, where a role title and framework of responsibility is quite often the basis for an earnings estimate. No one looks at their own individual skills, the ability to undertake a role effectively, how useful that role is to the company's future and bottom line. We assume so much and validate so little around what our abilities are truly worth - and the impact on your overall wealth is potentially immense.

We will see fallout from what I have spoken of above from the recent financial market events - many people will find their once high-paying jobs not existent and come to realize that their current skills are no longer relevant for the transformed financial or economic environment. For some this will impact their medium and long wealth assumptions and situation. My hope is that the wealth management industry and individuals in the future challenges some of the current financial heuristics in effect but pay closer attention to the forever changing economic value of one's skills and knowledge - and what that has in the wealth creation process

Are you achieving your professional goals or just going through the motions?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 18:40:00 +0000

Many of us are guilty of setting goals that we have no chance of achieving. Why do we do this? It's because there is nothing of substance underlying the goals, just passing interests. Because they do not represent something you care about and is of no importance to you or your principles, your subconscious will soon pass them over and move onto something else. However you feel principled to have these 'goals' so you will continue to have them and fail.

I believe because our society, in general, is brought up to fear failure we limit ourselves when it comes to achieving our maxiumum results and performing at our maximum potential in life. For many of our our goals are either not realistic (can blame this if we fail), too easy (highest chance of not failing), not timely (can always point to achieving something in the future) or not important to our lives (you and others will forget you have these goals). In my experience within the white collar world there are those of us that demand more from ourselves everyday and those who simply go through the motions. The first group are driven, have clearly set objectives that relate to their life principles, are organized, are prepared to sacrifice but most important clear their life of useless clutter. They are also top of their game. The second group believe that by getting a job in the white collar world they have achieved something big - their professional lives are controlled by others, they do not truly know what they want, sacrifice little because life is 'pretty good' and completely fall in a pattern of behaviour. Their skill levels are very similar in ten years time because of this. Then times change, as we have seen recently with recent financial and economic upheaval and many of this second group are left stranded - the first group may also go through some difficulty but will always succeed in a fight.

I've studied the existence of both these types of professionals over the past few years and have concluded that the first group is distinct because they (1) know themselves and have a clear reason(s) for what they want (2) are prepared to sacrifice (3) push themselves to be the best in their field and take the steps to ensure their performance is always high (4) do not take failure lightly and will push through adversity (5) have a plan that includes goals and action steps (6) always look to better themselves (7) they have done the research and know what is takes to achieve and (8) manage their time effectively.

I'm undertaking some work for an organization now that at the moment has no real measure of performance or productivity of the company or the indvidual staff - yet management thinks by simply going through the motions of the past ten years everything will be okay. This falls into the second group I was talking about above - thinking they are good enough as professionals because they have certain experience and a qualification. Well wake up guys...times change and skill and knowledge requirements change if you want to achieve in your profession. Fighting a battle with weapons and information of 100 years ago is not going to help you today no matter how strong you were back then. It doesn't matter how hard you work if you do not know what you need to achieve and do not therefore have the skills or knowledge required.

If you don't know (what you need to) and you don't do (what you need to) then you will never achieve.

Look, I'm not talking about earning millions and millions here - my message is about unlocking your potential and to stop wasting our time on this planet. The bottom line is why do something if you don't want to do it at your maximum potential? If you don't then maybe it's time to move onto something else.

Tactical and strategic career management - both need sufficient attention

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:23:00 +0000

I tend to focus a lot of my thoughts on career management these days as it is aligning itself more and more with my business mission. My primary focus is on increasing professional performance in the context of both an organization and individual. That is, improving the performance and the results you achieve in your professional life and in many ways apply where possible sport science princples for individuals. Why shouldn't bankers, educators, engineers, fitness professionals, actors etc all benefit from a complete performance improvement program similar to that made available to professional athletes who train for the short terms and long term? From what I see many small business enterprises and individuals do not have a clear objective or an understanding of how to control the actions necessary to achieve their objectives. Instead both business enterprises and individuals just go through the motions, perhaps working hard, but there is no real control or management over the direction they are taking.

On the back of this I wanted to discuss what career planning and management is about and what should be recognized as being required. Planning is crucial in running a business and no self-respecting or successful businessman or entrepreneur (at least the ones I know as clients and friends) would ever consider a project or opportunity without a plan. If you watch Dragons Den on BBC 2, concepts without a plan are just that - concepts as opposed to a potential business idea or model. In talking about career management, at least for this blog, I am looking more at those people working for an organization rather than working as an entrepreneur or business owner. Reason being is that I believe if you're running a successful business then you have dealt with the issues I am discussing - however please feel free to take note of anything useful.

For many in organizations the concept of career management is based on a six-monthly and annual review with your direct manager. You discuss some objectives for your role and what you want to achieve or need to achieve in the next period. Longer term plans are not really discussed, your manager has no expertise in this field, there is no discussion around shifting demand for your role and knowledge requirements, and there is no talk on how to improve your performance - not just in the role but your baseline performance ie. mental agility, confidence, core skills, leadership and teamwork etc etc. Is it no surprise you find you lose control of your career after a period of time, do not know where your job is taking you, become unmotivated and most probably on a path to not having the skills or knowledge you need to perform in the job of your choosing in the future.

I've decided the answer to this is tactical and strategic career management - similar to short term and long term goals and objectives but more of a plan rather than just listed points or abstract concepts. Career management must be split between tactical and strategic because they are not the same thing. Tactical plans are in place to achieve short term goals and strategic plans long term goals. If you are in war and win a battle, you will not win the war if you only know how to fight a single battle with a single goal. Likewise strategic thinking is of no benefit if you get killed in the first battle. So below is some advice divided under tactical and strategic career managment headings.

TACTICAL

1. Understand what it will take to succeed at your current role and what the next step will be and by when.
2. Do not just work for the sake of being busy - work hard to achieve clear objectives.
3. Do not make a decision today that will negatively impact your strategic goals.
4. Do not think your organization will support you in achieving your long term objectives - you have to make your own effort to learn, network and gain useful knowledge.
5. Recognized the tactical planning is the foundation for long-term achievement but that short-term wins do not guarantee long term success if they are not the 'correct' wins'

STRATEGIC

1. Achieving in the long-term means achieving many times in the short-term.
2. Your mission, values and self-purpose form the basis of your strategic objectives - you need to establish these early in your career and self-manage on a regular basis.
3. Once you have a plan don't be impatient and look for a short-cut in the short-term.
4. Never believe in the status quo and visualize yourself and the world two decades or more from now. What skills will you need, what will be job demand etc.
5. Combine Personal and Professional development plans to create your 'career framework'.

I use a combination of performance psychology, neurolinguistic programming and business strategy concepts with my clients to achieve the above framework. The bottom line is too many of us do not give our careers the attention they deserve (rather hoping for the best) or make too much effort in the wrong areas. Don't think you know what is going to work - put the time in to ensure your effort is rewarded.

Enhance your career by adding value, not just being useful

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 17:49:00 +0000

The way society works these days is a lot different from the past...and that includes what organizations require of their employees. It used to be enough to be useful to the organization and to serve a purpose if you wanted to ensure job security. However it is evident that today that is definitely not the case. Today, if you wish your career to be within a corporation, you must add-value to it's bottom line - not just today but next month, next year and so forth.

The two questions you might ask yourself are (1) what do I need to know or do to provide this value? and (2) who can I obtain this information or guidance from? The short answer to the first question is to understand that impacts the bottom line of the company and your division in particular and look for ways to improve it. Do more than your job requires, particularly if you realize that your actual position adds very little to the bottom line of your organization. If you realize this then someone higher up will and you know that is the end of your career as you know it. In respect to question two look at those who are successful in your organization to provide guidance or those in similar positions at competitor organizations. For what it's worth I find that HR and Training departments unfortunately are not sufficiently resourced or knowledgeable these days to provide any real assistance. It's not all their fault as organisations are requiring them to pick up more administrative tasks and subsequently their skill sets are being diluted away from what I believe are the more important roles of people management, being reskilling advice and career advice for employees.

Whilst being useful is about performing a process, adding value is about providing knowledge and skill the company doesn't otherwise have or not have in sufficient quantities. What does this mean for you? In simple terms obtain more knowledge, not just about what is required to perform for the company today but what is going to be required in the years to come.

The last piece I want to say is in respect to networking, both inter-company and outside of company. Having connections can be invaluable to providing value to the organisation you work for, in respect to possible sources of new employees, new sales channels and other information. Don't think by putting your head down within your cubicle and working the 15 hour, 6 day a week schedule will guarantee you the career of your dreams (doesn't sound like a great career anyhow). Rather get out and network with others in the industry(s) in which your organization deals. Establishing a positive relationship with management from another organization or your own will never hurt your career and in 9 times out of 10, be sure to enhance it.

Preparing for the day when you must become 'You' Ltd

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 12:58:00 +0000

A lot of talk and good talk has been in the media, over the past year in particular, in respect to 'the brand call you' and what this actually means for you. In today's society where trends in social and business networking are necessitating the need to communicate personal differentiation, it is very important to see yourself as a personal brand and more importantly what it takes for your brand to be perceived how you intend it to be. What you think and what others think can be completely separate things - this is one of the most important rules of knowing yourself.

However I see personal branding a little more than how you dress, how you speak etc. I see the whole concept more about 'You' Ltd, meaning you have to see yourself as a company in itself. In addition to branding, you need a strategy, goals, financial targets, development plans and processes that will permit you to succeed in achieving your goals. Society is moving away from relying on big business to provide jobs for life, guarantee your future or provide the personal and professional development you desire. Remember big business is also run by people who for most part will put themselves first. I am aware of large organizations that are planning today to contract out large sections of their workforce in order to better control cost, streamline the organization and be able to control the resources they utilize. That means if you are not prepared for the day when your company asks you to take redundancy then you will not be in a good place.

So what I wanted to do is provide a few key steps in getting you thinking about the day when you may have to take your skills and work as an independent.

1. Think about your overall strategy and what you want to achieve from your work. This includes personal development, lifestyle and financial needs and wants. Write yourself a business plan on 'You' Ltd. Undertake research on the market to see what careers may be in demand in the future and why - or go to someone who can assist in this area like a business and career consultancy. Dynamic Life Creations undertakes such research for a lot of its clients in this space.

2. Consider the competititive advantage do you bring to the market. What skills do you have that others do not. Which sectors and organizations would want your skills and what period of time are we talking.

3. Before the time comes perhaps consider networking with others who can provide complimentary skills that can contribute to you achieving your overall strategy.

4. Update your basic skills around goal setting and management, networking, financial management, marketing and the internet - these are skills you will need to ensure 'You' Ltd succeeds. Even if you won't be actively involved with everything, when running your own business you need an understanding of all facets of your organization in order to manage them.

5. Speak to others already running their own business. Events never happen until they do and not being prepared for a changing economy will be something you will have to deal with when the time comes.

How to effectively achieve goals and enjoy the experience

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 08:55:00 +0000

What would you say creates more pleasure - achieving goals or knowing you are on the right path to achieve your goals through undertaking the required actions? From what I have studied it takes shape in two forms; the first being the initial pleasure in the moment of achievement but then there is a subsequent feeling of emptiness if there are no future goals to move onto. Likewise working towards a goal can be immensely satisfying and rewarding over a period of time, but only if you know you are moving towards the goal you truly want.

What I wanted to write about today wasn't about ensuring your stated goals are truly the ones you want, rather I wanted to explore what was required to achieve your goals more efficiently. But also as important, and often ignored, was how to enjoy the journey of achieving the goals and minimizing any stress involved in the process.

When it comes to setting and achieving goals, the majority of us think of something we would like to achieve because of a reason important to us at a point in time. The majority of us don't consider a range of goals or even where a particular goal fits in with their overall life plan...if they have a life plan at all that is! A goal is something in the future and the primary weakness in goal setting today, whether wealth creation, health, business or career is that not enough thought and analysis is put into what is required to achieve the goal. That is, what steps or actions must be undertaken, in a somewhat predetermined order, to achieve your stated objective.

People are generally good at planning or action but not both and this is why goal setting and achievement is always an area we can improve. But the first point I want to make it that time must be allocated to planning the actions and steps necessary to achieve any potential goals.

Time management is also crucial in achieving goals...not much point in setting a goal for the next year that will take an average of 4 hours a day to achieve if you only have 2 hours available. Thus you must know your schedule, be strict in what you do and don't think more inputs to a goal will get you there faster. Often less is more and it is important to minimize the tasks required - performing only what is necessary. But more important is ensuring you act on your plan once you have cleared your schedule accordingly. This is where tools such as neuro linguistic programming (NLP)are useful where old habits and perceptions need to be broken and new ones re-established.

Lastly, goals are often achieved to gain a positive experience or to lose a negative experience. Either way not achieving a goal should not be an option but so many of us set goals that are not achieved. Worst still this becomes a habit and leads to underachievement and future stress due to the fact that you recognize you are not achieving what you want. The solution...don't focus on the goal, just focus on the actions you have identified you must undertake. If it helps create personal principles underlying these eg wanting to get to work early could be attached to a principle around starting the day fresh and wanting to maximise each hour of your life for personal development...something like that but it must work for you. The benefit is that you are more likely to respect yourself for undertaking these actions and not be tempted to continually change or adjust the goal because you are focused on the actions. Focusing on the goal, particularly one in the far future, will lead you to change more often as you become impatient and if you don't achieve then your stress levels and life enjoyment will suffer.

How to ensure a satisfying career

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:22:00 +0000

Amongst us there are those who have completely fulfilling careers, both professionally and personally, those who have satisfactory careers and lastly those with careers that are disappointing from both a professional and personal level. The question that needs to be answered is how do you achieve option 1 rather than option 2 and definitely not option 3.

The start of the career path for each of us starts from a different place due to a number of factors; family wealth, educational background of parents, socioeconomic status etc but this does not guarantee you have a satisfying career. There are many people coming from a background of wealth and privilege who are underachieving, unmotivated and not satisfied with their career and career path. Likewise there are those from ordinary and disadvantaged backgrounds who would say they have fulfilling careers.

From what I have studied the responses given may or may not be based on expectations but we may have to consider that has some influence but it is also important to note that purely considering financial rewards does not result in a guaranteed positive response or likewise a negative response if the financial reward is low. It appears the key drivers to a satisfying career are; having control over the career path, having your personal goals satisfied, feeling useful, receiving meaningful benefits, and knowing why you are undertaking the career you are in. It is also known that if you consider your career satisfying your performance will be high and you should receive personal benefit. High performance will be achieved simply because you want to perform well and this will ensure your focus and dedication is strong.

So what this means is that you have to be clear on why you are undertaking your job and what you are gaining from both a personal and professional perspective, not just undertake a role for the sake of it and assume it will provide you with what you want. It is up to you to take the time to identify what aspects of a job are important to you, from a principle point of view, and ensure you align these with the career you undertake. The consequence of not doing this is dissatisfaction and lack of motivation, perhaps not initially but over time when you are not achieving what is important to you - however at that time it might be too late to change.

How to effectively shape your career

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 08:49:00 +0000

More and more questions continue to arise in respect to work-life balance and life purpose, the main challenge revolving around how to shape your career to achieve the first two whilst maintaining some level of financial sanity.

I wanted to focus on career shaping as the career represents more than simply a job where you earn money. A career today provides opportunity for personal growth, financial security and independence, giving back to society, life purpose and direction, self discovery and many others. However it is recognized that it is very difficult to shape a career to achieve all these things with the time we have and everyday pressures....it's not like we live forever. Therefore you must first be able to put a framework around your dreams, goals and purpose to fit what is either being demanded or will be demanded by society in the future.

The way I see it your career or purpose must supply a need or want within our society's economic, political, social or health environments ie. it doesn't matter how important you think something is if no one else WILL NEVER think the same. Of course you will still have to convince people at times that what you have to offer is valuable but the fact is that they will be or can be convinced. Even now all careers (prefer this word to 'jobs') provide a use to society, either directly through a self-owned business or to a larger organization - but you see what happens when this demand is no longer wanted. Either the business fails or the organization makes your position redundant. At that point you ask yourself "what is it I am actually providing to society..what purpose do I have?" Not a great question to be asking.

So it's a question of just being thoughtful in selecting your career path and the skills and knowledge you are acquiring. Never assume society will remain status quo and never assume your organization will always support you. Look at the shifting sphere of demand and supply in the economy and then look at your personal interests. What do you like, what would you like to achieve, what would it mean and would it motivate you to succeed? Not only do you have to look at what society wants you also have to understand yourself - personal motivations and principles by which you want to live is crucial. Remember your decision not only impacts you but also your family from the position of a role model.

Should companies be responsible for 'reskilling' employees?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:52:00 +0000

When it comes to career management there are two kinds of organizations; those who provide training to their staff based on perceived organizational needs for particular roles and those firms which leave training and personal development completely up to their staff. Quite often though, even for the companies providing training and development, the focus is on the present needs rather than anticipated future requirements - both at organizational and individual levels. Therefore the entire aspect of personal and future development is not comprehensively forward looking.

So the day comes when the organizational identifies the fact that the role you are currently undertaking either is no longer necessary or that the skill and knowledge requirements are now different from what they used to be. For one reason or another, and quite strangely I believe, more and more often this is occurring with little or no advance warning. I get to thinking shouldn't the organization be in a better position to offer their staff advice in respect to the future of their role and the skills and knowledge they must obtain? If cannot do this then I get to thinking that organizations do not know their business well enough - but then who is in a position to assist you from a professional development point of view?

Any company should be up to date on what is happening in its industry and anticipate future market changes, demands and personnel needs. Resources must be allocated to this responsibility and the role of a 'futurist' or future strategy think-tank should be employed for this very purpose. Whilst individuals might think they know best in how to progress their personal development, professional development requires more of a holistic view of the market including the demand and supply of skills and knowledge, along with the setup and running of training programs themselves. In very much the same way universities take research on course and program content and development, companies must take on the same responsibility for their personnel simply because they are best placed to do so.

It is no excuse for any organisation to make redundant thousands of staff for the sake of shareholder value when they know their workers may not have the skills to transfer to supply shortages elsewhere in the economy. Resource reallocation of human assets, otherwise known as redundancy, can be good for society as it takes resources from areas where it is not needed to areas where it is. However companies need to assist, even cross industry, to make this happen otherwise the process becomes a huge negative on how we manage our resources and individuals' quality of life.

Is an intense and financially rewarding career misleading you?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:02:00 +0000

Regret and realization are two words never used in the present tense, only the past, and this is unfortuate as we would be undoubtably better off if we could access them as a guide to the future. What I want to say is that only after a result has occurred that we do not want does the emotion of regret become realizable in our minds and then we start with the attempted emotional salvage, consisting of 'next time I'll do.." or "I should have or could have done....".

In my experience, based on my studies and work with clients, key drivers of regret always stem from (but not restricted to) a lack of purpose in what is being done (leading to low motivation), lack of clarity (meaning no vision of clear goals or objectives) and lack of refined knowledge and skill (that you are not so useful and have served little purpose to the community and society). No one wants to face the emotion of regret and it can manifest into a darker path if not addressed but the challenge is to be aware of the direction your life is taking and take the appropriate steps to make change where necessary.

Many clients come to me already mentally exhausted and emotionally weakened because they have just come to the conclusion that the direction they are taking in life is not want they want. I'm told because of the 12-16 hour days and large financial rewards that they never really had time in their 20's or even 30's to stop and assess where their life was heading and it's purpose. When they do stop and assess they don't always like what they find and even worse, where it is heading. As Maslow, an eminent psychologist hypothesized, it is every humans' goal to achieve a state of self-actualization and purpose, and this may appear at any time. What you want at 45 is different to that at 35 and definitely different to that at 25. Whilst you can change your mind in an instant, changing your life's direction can take considerably longer - thus need for pre planning and consideration.

Life management is about defining and managing your personal brand and identity in society - and on a continual basis as society evolves around us. Now whilst there is not yet any scientific approach to this process there are some obvious steps you can take; work with a life coach and psychologist to understand your values and motivations, identify your key interests and passions, know and understand your personality (refer to Myers Briggs) and from common sense point of view, dress and act as you would want to be perceived. Clean up your online profile and manage that the same as you would manage yourself in the real world. What this will provide you with is a basis for your being and create a framework of the principles within which you want to live your life.

The key point I want to make is that you need to be consciously aware of the path you are taking in life and the purpose you have. Hoping it will all turn out is simply giving up control of your existence to fate and losing control of your life is not an emotional state you want to experience

Would you use an 'expert' if they knew only a little more than you?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 11:57:00 +0000

There are experts offering services in pretty much all areas of our lives and as non-experts we use them to achieve goals in particular areas of focus. There are experts in accounting, recruitment, investment, tax, personal development, relationships, law, health...the list goes on and on. Now the basis for being an expert is generally two things, either one or both; accumulation of knowledge based on study and application of skill due to experience.

Now you would expect an 'expert' to be much better and a whole lot more knowledgeable then you are in a particular area before agreeing to utilize their services. Why? Because they cost a lot and you need a quality result - otherwise why use them in the first place. However what I have determined recently however is that many people claiming to be 'experts' in particular fields have little expert knowledge and two cannot provide you with a result that you would expect. What they are good at is convincing you of their quality and that you are getting value for money. The problem is it is difficult to validate a result or outcome from their services unless compared against something else - and many of us do not have that luxury.

I see it as 90% self-marketing and 10% of actual useful knowledge transfer. Experts have recently appeared in investment, coaching, personal branding, personal development, career management and personal training to name a few....where society as a whole are not quite aware as to what constitutes a valid qualification. Would you believe there are many investment advisers who only sell and advise on the 10% of potential investment strategies that they know or life coaches who cannot manage their own lives and have absolutely no formal training in psychology or coaching techniques. What about a personal trainer with no formal knowledge of nutrition or physiology? What benefit would you receive from someone who 'tells you what they think' rather than 'what is proven'? I know people out in the market consulting on personal branding - inherently not a new term but the growing individualism of the economy has brought it to our attention. Some of the advice is practical, extremely worthwhile but mostly commonsense - it is not proven to produce a predefined result and there is no established framework to produce a 'particularly perceived' personal brand image. Further there is no formal knowledge required or certification - so how can you validate the result? The answer is you cannot. Perception and effective marketing is a huge part of being an expert in many new fields where you simply have to convince people how good you actually are.

I do digress and in no way mean to slight any of the many experts in the above industries as I am friends with many, respect for many more and am involved myself. What I do want to focus on is the fact that so-called experts perhaps know only a little if nothing more than the rest of us. It might mean reading a book or magazine article to know someone more than the person next to you. If you want to manage your career for example get want some advice and direction go to someone with recognized knowledge and experience - and ask for evidence of this. But also research what qualifications and experience this person has. The internet has laid rise to a huge number of 'self proclaimed' experts and in our quest for success and wealth, we're tending to grab at anything and dilute the 'expert' brand. This may indirectly lead to the death of education as who needs formal qualifications if your word is accepted by the rest of society? It may also lead to a society that does not develop as quickly or in the direction that is best.

Benefiting from the poor decisions (mistakes) you make

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:20:00 +0000

Okay so I used the word 'mistake'...if I had used 'errors' instead I would have been told there is no such thing as an 'error', rather an unwanted/unexpected 'result'.

However back to the heart of the matter how do you benefit, from a personal development point of view, from decisions that do not produce the intended results? Or should I be asking 'do you benefit' from decisions that do not produce the intended results?

Decision making is the basis of our we live our lives, determines the path in life we take, the quality of life we have, and the goals we achieve. But more important then the actual decision made is 'how' we made the decision and 'what' made us choose one decision out of many we could have made? How often do we regret the decision we had made, not only during the next minute, hour or day but years in the future. In relationships, investing, career, business and health...the decisions you make are extremely important.

Now there are many drivers of decision making and the purpose of this piece is not to look at that in too much detail. I will add it is important to recognise that physiology, emotional well-being and living conditions can all impact short term decision making that may or may not be aligned with your inherent life values and motivations. However whilst you cannot guarantee your decision will not always produce the intended result, it is important to learn from what you get but do not want. Why? Because if you continue to follow the same decision making path it is common sense that tells us that the results may again and again not be what you wish for.

So the question you have to ask yourself is whether you are learning from the decisions you make that do not produce the intended results? Are you achieving your goals at work, in your business, your investments and in your relationship and if not are you reviewing the decisions you are making within each to determine how you can improve the decisions you are making? What is it you need to do to improve your decision making? There are a number of things that can contribute to this process - improve your skills or knowledge in a particular area, contemplate whether the 'rules of thumb' you recognise as true are in fact not correct, update your internal 'meta-level' framework and do the opposite of what you are doing to get the result you want.

To truly benefit from poor decisions can be challenging as it may mean altering the principles by which you have been living your life. There is nothing wrong with this as continual personal development should be the goal of every human on this earth. But it can be difficult and life and business coaches with backgrounds in NLP and psychology can make a difference.

Workplace reality...merging and creation of career paths. Where are you placed?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 09:59:00 +0000

Part of managing your career effectively is to be aware of current and future workplace and career trends. This includes; knowing the people resource direction your organization and similar organizations are heading, the demand for skills and knowledge going forward, potential new career paths being created and careers that will no longer be required. Managing your career path with the assumption that the status quo will continue is one sure way to waking up one day finding your skills and knowledge are no longer needed in the new economy. So what does this mean for you?

Well to begin with you have to recognize how 'in demand' your current skill and knowledge set is and ascertain whether the future trend is up or down. My clients speak to me quite regularly about the research I undertake on future career and business trends to gauge whether they are increasing their 'economic value' by remaining in their current career. If you prefer to undertake your own research then read magazines relating to business, economics, human resources, entrepreneurs etc and don't just read the words....have a think about what these articles are inferring about the direction our society is taking. Ensure your personal brand reflects in part what society will be demanding in the future.

You should also look at your current employing organization and those of your friends and family. Look at the roles on offer and have a think about whether your role and others will be required within the next five years? Organizations undoubtably aim for continual performance improvement and this means merging, outsourcing or automating roles where possible. This is not a bad thing as our society only develops through continual reallocation of resources - and this includes people. However it will spell disaster if you think you can perform the same role forever - even if you are upper management. I have one friend who is performing three roles within her organization - one because of a maternity and one because someone has not been replaced, in addition to her own. Don't think for a second that if she performs well that her firm will hire the two staff that were there only a month ago.

Once you have a better idea of where you are, immediately start to plan for the future transition that must happen, whether that be a career change, adjustment or move from big business to your own or vice versa. Speak to a career management and business coach about opportunities and next steps - begin to understand your true motivations and values so someone with a background in performance psychology would be an advantage. Look at the potential future roles you might want to work in and identify the skills and knowledge required - this may require going back to school for a couple of years but do that knowing that in two years you will be well-placed to take advantage of market demand.

Validating and valuing your personal brand - Part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 08:09:00 +0000

There is more and more talk these days around ebranding and creating an effective personal brand, though it is still an art form and in its early stages. However there is no denying the fact that your personal brand in society and online, in respect to society's perception of it, should be treated with care and your career and/or business plan must make this a high priority item to manage.

There are many entrepreneurs and consultants that are starting to claim an 'expert' tag in respect to personal branding. Tom Peters, Dan Schawbel and a few select others are very highly regarded in the field of personal branding and provide a lot of good information as to managing a personal brand, what it means, how to differentiate yourself from your competitors and the tools you need to create a successful personal brand. However there are two aspects, which I would regard as key, that in my mind are still questions are this stage. The first is to ensure you are on the correct path to obtaining the 'personal brand' perception that you think you want. The second is to be able to 'value' your personal brand in the market. Without each of these you will simply be undertaking actions that may or may not create the correct personal brand image or alternatively you may just create a 'worthless' personal brand.

I am one that totally agrees with the concept of personal branding...it's always been in our lives, professionally and personally, in respect to what others perceive us to be and represent. It's just never before been a focus - until now because the workplace demands it. However creating a personal brand is not something to be taken lightly. No one can yet tell you what has to be done to create a brand that will provide a certain perception...for a company yes, but not for an individual. No one can even tell you how to value your brand ie just because I'm perceived a particular way does not guarantee results due to the influence of external events that cannot be controlled. Inherently a personal brand is inflexible as the core foundation of the brand is you and with that comes specific motivations, values, genetics and emotional intelligence etc

So my suggestion is to look and understand all of the tools that influence your personal brand 'value' in the market - online presence, social networks, image, knowledge of personality and emotional/social intelligence. But take with you two things; you are no marketing or branding guru and thus creating 'the' personal brand is going to take time but the good news is that a lot of personal branding is simply common sense so don't be awed by all you read - just spend time to think about who you are and what you want. That is, get to know yourself and take control of your life.

Achievement of goals part 1 - work smarter not harder

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 11:21:00 +0000

Achieving goals consists of a number of factors; defining the goal, allocating the time, working hard consistently, having a vision and purpose etc. But the one thing I see that consistently prevents individuals and organizations from achieving goals is the fact that the actions undertaken are not aligned to the achievement of the goal itself. No matter how hard you work or how much you plan or how much you visualize the goal, you will not get to your objective if your actions are not appropriate.

This is where business psychology needs to catch up with sports psychology and sports science around performance and goals if it's going to truly assist entrepreneurs and organizations and individuals achieve business and career goals. The science behind sport is quite clear depending on the sport you are undertaking and what you want to achieve and when. Training schedules are arranged, diets and nutrition laid out in detail, rest periods/tapering etc. The psychology around sports is also quite clear. However in business and career management there are many organizations and individuals who I see with great goals, lots of dedication but really do not know how to decide what actions to take or validate their decision.

So how do I suggest goals to be achieved more effectively? Well for one focus on working smarter not harder. Working harder and making more effort does not achieve anything if you're headed in the wrong direction. Based on this you need to continually assess whether your actions are actually the right ones - therefore have mini goals that can provide you with some feedback at regular stages as to whether you're on the right path. If you're not achieving the mini goals then there is no basis for thinking you'll achieve the main objective. It's also important that the reward for achieving the goals is there and tangible..otherwise motivation will fade.

Individuals and organizations have a lot to learn about goal setting - in an organization the difficulty is that the positions responsible to help achieve organizational goals are often held by those who do not know the science or art of achieving goals to begin with. In part 2 I'll look at individual goal setting and part 3 organizational goal setting

What do you know or have that others will buy from you?

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 19:24:00 +0000

If the answer makes you think for too long, you have no answer or you come up with some reasoning including the words 'consulting, strategy, development...etc' then keep reading. What we need to understand is that the level of education and savy is such in the market today amongst the masses that the fancy titles and concepts that were difficult to understand and taught at only the top business schools in the past are no longer impressive. Every fourth rate school teaches the same concepts and with such a high percentage of the western world going to college the coverage of these concepts is extremely wide.

Am I recommending not going to school and to become an inventor, internet entrepreneur, celebrity cook, athlete etc instead? Perhaps so, but actually it doesn't matter what path you take as long as you do two things. One is to work hard and the second is to be very clear on what you are offering and why. The work hard is the easy bit, even the bit on being clear on what you are offering...the hard bit is to confirm the 'why'. 'Why' are you producing a product, delivering a service, studying something at school etc.

Liking what you do it extremely important (and I will get to the fact that there are different levels of 'liking or loving' your job) but more important you have to recognize a demand for your skill or knowledge. If no one is in the market for what you have to offer then what you have will go to waste. I'm not talking about the challenge of being able to 'brand' or 'market' your offering so people are interested...I am talking about no interest no matter what you do because it doesn't hit the right demographic, is out of sync with social trends etc.

So what you need to do, to ensure a meaningful career either as an employee or business person is to clarify what you have to offer, how you're going to offer it and why it will be bought. If you cannot do this now take the actions you need to in order to do so. Last word regarding liking your job...it's not always about pure enjoyment, but can be satisfaction gained from making a difference, achieving what only few can...don't confuse liking or loving the job along the same lines as loving your family or liking a gift. Make the meaning of the word whatever you need it to be to suit you.

Is the foundation of your career skill and knowledge or process driven

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:46:00 +0000

Every career is not created equal when it comes to looking at future progression, opportunities and rewards. At the most basic level the career is influenced by the same forces as pretty much everything else in society, that being demand versus supply. Ensuring demand or supply for knowledge or a skill is not something we can truly control as individuals because the forces surrounding that are larger than all of us. However we can help ourselves by identifying the careers that are and predicted to be in demand today and in the future and then suppliment our current skills and knowledge to be able to supply that demand to the market.

We can say there are skilled and non-skilled jobs, jobs that require specialist knowledge transfer and those that require none. In general that is how society views the careers available to the market today. In actual fact all careers require some level of skill and some level of knowledge that must be transferred when performing a task. However when I allude to 'process' in the title of this blog I am making a distinction between careers where there is some kind of barrier to entry and those where there is very minimal. For example, working hard labour as a seasonal fruit picker (though still physically challenging) is easy to commence as opposed as working as a top laywer or doctor where many years of study are required. It is these kinds of jobs, that though not guaranteed, can morph into another career using the same underlying skills and where the skills and knowledge are still in demand by society. Fruit pickers on the other hand, once replaced my machines or cheaper labour, cannot take their skills to another industry.

I am not saying that jobs will not come and go, career becoming something different from initial intentions. The point to be made is that survival in this society is not from assuming you can perform the same job forever. Here I will make a distinction between job and career; job is an actual undertaking of a task in the present, a career is utilising a core set of skills and knowledge for different but inter-related objectives over the course of your life. Transferrable skills and knowledge, and ensuring that these are up to date with demand, is key to survival. Undertaking a process driven job and assuming the company will take care of you is something we all know very well is not going to happen.

I want to conclude that process driven jobs are not just those in manual environments - many desk jobs are also process driven with little skill or knowledge required, rather just some training and practice. The secret is to recognize what kind of job you have in respect to the foundation underlying its demand, and make a conscious decision to take on additional skills or knowledge to protect yourself and to give yourself more options in the future.

Life decisions based around the 'status quo' will fail in today's world

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 11:24:00 +0000

Why have I chosen to write about the above subject today? I see a lot of people who are walking around at the moment kind of stunned and shocked with the multiple stress of losing wealth, job security, political instability and the fact that they suddenly realize they have no clear life direction or purpose. The question is what can you do to adapt and what does a changing society mean for you personally?

Well first of all stop thinking that life will just 'work out' even if you make little effort or do not think about your actions. In the past society was more stable and changed at a slower rate - people lived by different principles. Now everyone wants more, more is expected of us, consumerism is becoming more of a lifestyle where we either work or spend and entrepreneurs are always looking for the next thing as humans' attention span is now so short. Unfortunately there are also limited resources so those who do not go and get will end up with nothing.

You might say great wealth or job satisfaction is not important, you would rather live an easy life. Well get real...with technology, investment trends, globalization, political disputes changing ever so quickly there is no way anyone's life cannot not be impacted by social changes occurring. The need to adapt is just as necessary now as it was for the caveman when fighting for his life in the wild. Our 'wild' is now the urban jungle and the dinosaurs are everyone else trying to succeed. The survival of the fittest rings true and if you don't realize this now then good luck.

However if you do realize you must adapt with change then your next step is to focus on how much you need to change and in what areas. Whether it be new skills for a career, changing your investment structure, changing your perceptions of the world, fitness and mental agility your plan must be clear and focused. Society, as it was in the past, will not automatically take care of you, your employer will not guarantee you a job for life, your wife will not guarantee a relationship for life...it is time to accept that the direction your life takes is in your hands and your hands only.

Go see a business or personal performance coach, look at tools such as neurolinguistic programming to put the changes into effect. But more importantly act today.

Goal setting in face of financial adversity - part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 08:01:00 +0000

When it comes to discussion around goal setting and achievement of those goals all the text books talk about having clear values, motivations, action plans and the like. They talk about time management and keeping focus as if it is something unknown to the 'uneducated' masses. But of course we might suspect that the people writing these books are not goal setting 'gurus', they are just writers who have decided to write a book that they hope to sell to make money. Quite simple.

However the one thing that many writers of goal setting books, coaches etc do not take into account very well is the influence of life/other uncontrollable or even some controllable events on the human psyche. Even the best laid plans for goals, even those you thought were important, can be adversely affected by other matters that are important. Today, briefly, I want to talk about how to consider setting goals even when you are being impacted by negative financial events.

So by now even the people living underground know that there is a massive upheaval in financial markets, asset worth and capital allocation in the world at the moment. Many of us are losing a good portion of wealth, seeing assets fall in value and becoming burdened with debt. Now another topic I will talk about soon is the fact that wealth is not real....but to most of us increased wealth makes us feel good and decrease makes us not feel so good. Many people I speak to say that their life goals are impacted by this feeling of becoming 'less wealthy' and seeing money being taken away from them. Many other goals are being pushed aside because of the stress of financial pressures and this is causing lack of motivation, determination, vision - even from those people who would state that they are not motivated purely by money.

This is not something that can be covered in one setting so I've made this part 1. At this time I would choose to leave you with these five thoughts;

1. Learn to focus on what you can control, not what you cannot control. Financial markets move in cycles and for 99.9% of us we cannot determine what happens. Therefore do not blame yourself for what has happened.

2. Whilst we all need money to live, take a breath and truly think about what money means to your lifestyle and way of life. Do you really need the money today? If financial markets move in cycles do you never expect your wealth to increase in the future? Exactly what have you lost? Perhaps it's not about the wealth itself, rather you feel something has been 'taken' from you. Take the emotion out of this thought!

3. Own up to yourself that being financially secure or even independently wealthy, or whatever it is, is important for you. Perhaps look at what you can do to control your finances better...but only within the realms of you can control.

4. Revisit your goals and ask yourself do you still want what achieving the goal will provide? Do they still equate to what you value as a human being. Refocus on these benefits and even include what you can gain financially. Standing still and doing nothing is not going to get you anywhere - if you keep on moving forward things will happen. This is a fact of life - action results in change of status quo.

5. Look at improving your knowledge of investments and perhaps consider taking charge of your own finances a little. Many finance professionals know little more than you in many respects. My other advice is to invest in what you know - I have a friend who invests only in his business only because he knows the value of this in detail.

Why financial market short selling is unfair to the majority of investors

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:37:00 +0000

The news gracing the pages of papers and internet sites all over the world during the last six months and most definitely over the last couple, more so than famine, war and all the other 'usual' items deemed worthy of news is that of the financial markets. Everyday the media looks to sensationalise events, oil up or down, mortgages failing or not, banking system collapse etc....but there is also talk about the impact of short selling and impact it has on the direction of the market and the wealth reallocation amongst individuals.

Like many of us who understand or at least pretend to understand the financial markets, main ones being the Dow, FTSE, Hang Seng, Nikkei, we probably tend to agree with a nod of our heads that short selling has its benefits. It was meant to allow a short-term hedge on a long position, whether physical or synthetic or likewise would be used to call-out companies that weren't so strong financially as they seemed. Hedge funds, short sellers continue to stick with this line that they are doing the world a favour by short selling all these stocks to 40, 50, or even 90% of it's current market value. Well if they count the world as their investors I guess they have it right.

The part I would have an issue with from a moral perspective is that many funds, and thus normal investors/the rest of us, are not allowed to short stock and must via mandate hold certain percentages of shares in the major indexes. Pension funds, mutual funds etc are not as flexible in terms of investment strategy as any hedge fund, specialist asset manager or even day trader with a margin account. So this means the majority of the population loses wealth which is re-allocated to the minority of the population who are able to invest this way.

Whilst the losing mutual and pension funds gain a small return by lending stock to the short sellers, who cares when they lose in excess of 50% of the fund's value in that stock. Particularly, as one piece of research shows, fund managers generally have little of their personal wealth in their own funds. Meaning they are not losing their money, but that of their investors.

So until the rules change that permit anyone to short sell the financial market playing field is stacked against the average everyday investor. My advice; learn to invest on your own terms and take your money out of any fund that is not flexible in respect to investment strategy. The writing on the wall says that long only funds will not continue to do well as the market will not automatically continue to rise - therefore short sellers will rule the market. Knowing this don't just sit on your hands and hope for the best. Act today and take your financial well being into your own hands

It's how you adapt to a situation or event that is important

noreply@blogger.com (Daryl Close) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:34:00 +0000

The natural tendancy we have in life, when facing or experiencing a particular situation, is to live in the present and exhibit an emotion based on this. Whether that be making or losing money from an investment, starting or finishing a relationship, being accepted for a new job or being fired, or even landing in a strange country and feeling out of place - the natural reaction is based on that exact moment in time. If it's determined to be positive your emotion will be as such and if negative likewise.

However little do we realize that the current point in time is just the current point in time and there will be thousands of those moments in the future. What we also ignore is that it's how we react in each momemt that will determine the events and thus emotional reaction in those future moments. When we experience the good times then for many of us it is 'good times forever' and no planning is made for the correction (that occurs as equilibrium in life)or we choose not to accept it. When the less than good times roll around then often it is all about self sympathy and stress rather than planning and putting in place a foundation to take advantage of the future up cycle.

Therefore this leads to the conclusion that it is more important in what you do to move from one present point in time to the next present point in time rather than where you actually are. Let me explain..

If you are in a great situation presently it is not enough to congratulate yourself on where you are - though I would most definitely do that. It is imperative that you take the actions necessary to help ensure that your future life maintains this standard based on your values and purpose at that time. Likewise if you are in a unattractive or undesired situation in the present it is not about only reflecting on where you are today but more important that you identify and act on those steps you must take to move to a desired future point. The reason I say this is that current experiences are not always within your control...but what you do to move forward are and there is no excuse if you do not act.

Conclusion....don't get arrogant in the good times or depressed in the bad, but rather focus on the steps you must take to help ensure as best as possible that your future 'living in the present' experiences are what you truly want.