This article appeared in my newsletter Road to Success. To receive your monthly copy of this email newsletter complete the form on my website.
What's Plan B?
My article in January addressed the idea that we all need to think of ourselves as self-employed so that if our work environment changes we will have kept our skills up to date and our network active. In that way I suggested we are ready to move on when the need arises.
In line with that theme I found an interesting article by Florence Stone on the American Management Association website (www.mworld.org) that takes it one step further. The article suggests we create a Plan B. Stone attributes this idea to Elwood N. Chapman. Chapman refers to Plan A as your current job so Plan B is the plan you implement when Plan A isn't working for whatever reason.
Stone says, "Plan B also demands a major shift in thinking about your career - that is: your career is your responsibility, the end result of actions you take rather than a matter of luck or intervention of someone from on high within your organization."
As an AT&T employee I was always amazed when people accepted jobs they knew were wrong for them merely because their boss moved them into it. (They felt they did not have a choice.) Only after they were miserable did they decide they needed to do something about it. Early in my career I sat near a woman who at least once or twice a day shouted, "I hate my job." She needed to implement a Plan B.
Before you begin to develop a plan you will need to be clear about what your next move will be. Once you know what you want to be doing and where you want to be doing it, Stone suggests you follow 7 simple steps. I've chosen the first 3 for this article:
- Make a commitment to Plan B. Just thinking about what
you plan to do won't make it happen. How do you make a clear commitment?
She suggests telling a friend. I'd go a step further and say make
your friend a partner in your success. Keep your partner updated
on your progress because you'll need encouragement and acknowledgement
from him/her. I suggest also writing down your goal and putting
it where you can see it. The most important part is to be clear
about what you want to do and that you are committed to doing
it. Get it out of your head and out where you can recommit to
it daily. Here is something a client said to me on this topic:
"Once I have a clear goal, that I want for a reason that is still going to make sense to me in a week or a month's time, I am half way to getting something done. I don't really have much difficulty achieving stuff that I am committed to."
- Do your current job better. Now this one seems a bit
odd but think about it. First you want to make sure you are doing
your current job well so that you have time to focus on plan B.
Any increase in productivity will help you. In tenuous business
times you also want to be seen as the person who is a producer
not someone preoccupied with making alternate plans. So often
when clients begin to make plans to look for another job they
almost mentally exit their current job. Then they come to me because
they have lost their job. The point here is to keep the one you
have got and excel at it while at the same time making a backup
plan.
- Take advantage of learning opportunities in your current job. Taking action on this will help you with step 2. The point here is that in this changing work and technology environment you will want to be up to date on your skills. Select the training that will help you get to the next level. One option for your Plan B is to better position yourself in your current company. If your goal is to move from the field you are in to something entirely different, you may need to find some learning opportunities outside of your company. First see if there is a way to do this within your company. There may be. Otherwise do it on weekends or evenings. This is challenging I know. None of us want to work all week and then have to do more work on weekends or evenings. It helps however if the field you are interested in entering is really a passion for you. If it is, the additional work will not be "work".
Even those of us who work for ourselves need a Plan B. What will we do when our current business slows down? How do we move our businesses and ourselves to a new level? These steps will work for us as well.
Intrigued? If you want to know the other 4 steps go to www.mworld.org and click on the words "concerned professional". Next time I will discuss those steps. Have you got any suggestions about a Plan B? Anyone implemented one successfully?