I have been working from home for a few months now and I honestly really enjoy it. It allows me the time to focus on my work and during breaks, I get to spend it with my family either hanging out at home or going for walks around our beautiful neighbourhood.

I would like to say that I was proactive every single day and I had an excellent routine. That I completed all my work, housework, payed full attention to everyone, fit in all my exercise…

But it didn’t quite happen like that. Well, not every day.

There were days I’d run around trying to fit in a shower, feeding my one year old her breakfast, getting dressed, putting on some makeup, putting on the laundry and making a mental note to turn on the dryer, eating my own breakfast, brushing my teeth while sometimes holding my daughter, taking her to daycare a few times per week, and then rushing back to get to my computer, plopping myself down on my chair and starting my team meeting each morning. Phew.

And then there were other days when things worked really well and I was able to calmly do everything I had to get done to get prepared for the day.

I feel like I had to go through a cycle.

At the end of some days I felt frustrated that I didn’t achieve all that I had I wanted to. I consider myself someone who needs to be productive each day. Since having a child I value every single second I have available even more. Just see my post on how I spent my year of maternity leave here. Not getting something done would really bother me. And I’m talking getting myself down, thinking I’m not achieving anything, ever, and yes, losing sleep.

Proactive mindset

In order to make a start at being proactive while working from home, I made the decision at the end of that frustrating day that I needed to do that thing I didn’t get around to doing. The annoyance I felt gave me a drive to take action the next day. Sometimes I had to put things in place like asking for help to have additional time to do the things I wanted done.

Other times I would really have to force myself to stop procrastinating and just start on getting something done! I took the approach that would work best for me in that moment. It’s ok to adapt to whatever style you need when you need it.

Achievable goals

I also had to do a bit of a reality check and make sure my goals were achievable. I do have a tendency to want to do a little too many things in the hours that are available in a day. This would lead to nothing but more frustration!

Be fair to yourself and make those daily goals achievable – especially if there is a big task you are working towards. Those small wins each day will get you there, I promise!

Be organised – plan ahead and write it down in your diary

Sometimes I was too busy to plan and then when the time came for action, I would think to myself “ok, I have time now, what do I do first?”. I would get so overwhelmed with the tasks I had to do I wouldn’t know where to start! You can probably tell where this would lead…

Once I started writing down all the tasks I needed to do in my backlog, I would take out a couple of achievable things from that list into my To Do tasks for the next day. This helped me better achieve the things I needed to.

Be flexible

Other times things don’t go to plan and you need to change what you had set out to do. Being able to adapt and change my schedule for the rest of the day was key to still being productive. By having my backlog of things I need to do would let me easily take things from this list and alter my to do list to my new schedule.

Productivity train begins

Once I completed one of the things I wanted to, I felt calm as well as energised to take on the next job. Then my productivity cycle began and I was in the right headspace to keep going and ticking off those things on my list! The more I did, the better I felt and on went this cycle.

Don’t be hard on yourself

My key takeaway is not to be too harsh on yourself for not getting everything done that you had planned to. Things happen and your plans may need to change and sometimes nothing happens yet you still didn’t achieve all you had planned. Its ok.

Its fine to go through the cycle of feeling frustrated. It means it will give you that poke to do more tomorrow. When you do more, you feel energised to do even more. That positive reinforcement will drive you into that proactiveness that you were after.

And yes, there will be days when you again get frustrated and don’t achieve all that you wanted to achieve. This can come even after you have had a set of great days. Just relax. Tomorrow is another day. The key is to start doing…doing anything…to break you out of that cycle and onto the road of being proactive again.

Do remember it is also ok to take some time off. This is something that I still find hard doing myself. Even more so now that the line between when work ends and my personal life begins can be blurred quite easily when working from home. Personally, I have tried to relax myself in this space by taking time out to go for walks, sitting down to have my tea or coffee, or listening to a meditation. As you might be able to tell I’m a big introvert.

Remember, nothing stays the same forever. If you are working from home, enjoy the opportunity because you never know what might happen next week. Especially in current times! Things could change at any moment, even if you can’t see it yet. The past has gone and the future isn’t here yet. Enjoy the moment you are in now.

Please share any tips that you have about being proactive while working from home below!

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I have had the chance to work with many leaders in senior positions throughout my career. A key skill I have developed is being able to adapt to their personal leadership and management styles.

Understanding the ways they prefer to work is extremely useful when it comes to your own career development. I quickly learnt that even those leaders who do want to help you develop your career, may not have the time to sit with you to consider potential pathways and opportunities.

In my experience I had to be proactive about my own development. If I wasn’t, I probably wouldn’t have gotten many of the opportunities I was fortunate enough to undertake.

I’d like to share some of my insights from what has worked well for me. These don’t work with every leader you work with so it is just a matter of trial and error to figure out what works in your working-style with your boss.

Tip 1: Lay the foundation

The most essential step to take when working with senior leaders yet still developing your own career. Start by demonstrating you can handle any task and do a great job, no matter how big or small. Become reliable and trusted. You need to establish yourself before you can go on to the next steps of asking for opportunities for career progression.

Show you can handle what you’ve already been given to do first. Once you have established your foundation, you will be able to go on to the next steps of career growth.

Tip 2: Do your research and clearly articulate what you want

If you are interested in a career path, investigate it further. There are a number of things you could do. Start by engaging with the people in your network. Find out what qualifications and experience you need. Attend industry events and ask people in your network to introduce you to someone who is in a role you might want to be in one day. Do your research. Be clear on what you want from the next steps in your career. Note – from all that research you might find its not actually what you want to be doing!

You might find you have to take this approach if you don’t have the chance to have these conversations with your boss, but your boss is very keen to help you grown in your career. In my experience I was lucky enough to have several bosses who were supportive in helping me progress. They were willing to help me create opportunities, I just had to let them know what it was that I wanted.

Tip 3: Take initiative your boss’s key deliverables

You might be in a situation where you aren’t sure of what you want to do in your career at the moment, but you want to keep moving forward. I recommend understanding your boss’s key priorities. What do they need to deliver on? What are the priorities they are working toward? Is there a new way of working they might be introducing across the organisation? Offer to be involved/lead something in that space.

For example, years ago, a boss of mine wanted to introduce agile ways of working for all his teams. He then had big plans to expand more broadly across the organisation. I offered to work with a lead contractor he brought in to help roll this out. I put up my hand to do anything and everything and did it well. Responsibility came slowly but surely.. I was able to not only develop a great understanding of this new methodology. I also ended up leading projects in a new unit that was established and found a new passion!

Tip 4: Get involved in meetings

Ask to attend meetings you see in your boss’s diary. I was fortunate enough to have a boss who took the approach of “If you see anything in my diary you are interested in, just come along”. This was gold to me and definitely one of the best perks to working with a senior leader.

I went to so many interesting meetings with many different internal and external stakeholders. It gave me an excellent opportunity to shadow my boss and understand how to run their portfolio. I also started offering to take on tasks to do that came out of these meetings which turned into projects I was able to lead. I appreciated every opportunity!

Tip 5: Find a time that works

I still recommend trying to find a time that works for a chat with your boss. It would be a shame to miss the opportunity to receive guidance from a senior leader. I would figure out what time would work best for each boss I had. For instance, sometimes I met my boss very early in the mornings for a coffee, before the working day began.

Other times we would meet after work following our last meeting, or when my boss was working from home I’d give them a call via video-conference. Find what time works well for them and take that opportunity to have a chat. There is a wealth of experience you could learn from a senior leader.

Tip 6: Take a step back and reflect

At the end of each week or fortnight, write down the things you have achieved. When working with senior leaders, it is so easy to get caught up in the high work load that you may not get a chance to be fully aware of and appreciate your own achievements! Take the time to sit down and write out what you achieved during that period of time. I am sure that you will be pleasantly surprised by what you come up with.

Wishing you the best of luck with your career progression!

Check out other articles around Personal Initiative here.

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This afternoon I instantly perked up when three of my former colleagues joined me for a catch-up after work. Connecting with others was an excellent mood booster! Hearing about their experiences over the past few months and funny things they are doing to keep things interesting! I think we laughed the entire time.

A good thing I can take away from this time is that meeting with this group of colleagues would be very difficult to organise in person. Probably one of those events that you would have to organise weeks in advance, checking schedules and book a time when everyone is free. This way, we only had to organise it a day beforehand!

If you haven’t had too much engagement with others lately, reach out to someone – or a few people! Connecting with others is a powerful mood booster. So start a chat (video makes a lot of difference) with friends or colleagues using software that works for everyone. Don’t wait until you get to a point where you really start to feel isolated. Do something about it now.

I have started booking in coffee catch-ups with friends for the next couple of weeks ahead. This will help to get me away from feeling how I did earlier today. Its another thing to look forward to in my week

For additional articles on your personal initiative, check out the following link.

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One of the people I reached out to was a mentor of mine. I had known her for years and we had kept in touch whenever she was in town. I finally decided to ask the question about whether we could work together ‘now’ as I could finally dedicate time to it (working together was always something we both hoped to do in the future).

She started me on one project first. I was so excited and grateful that I didn’t negotiate the pay (even though she said I could). I had just had a baby maybe five months prior, I saw myself as new to consulting and somehow both these things convinced me that I didn’t need to negotiate.

I think this was a mistake. I should have taken into account all my prior experience which was essential to undertaking the consulting work. I didn’t set the tone for what I expected as reasonable and I felt that things just went downward from there.

As a few months passed and we were well into the project, we started having initial conversations about future work ahead. She made reference to my low rate and that in the future I would be able to charge the client directly to earn a higher rate, more in line with that of a consultant. I knew for a fact that what she was charging me out for was a 150% difference in what I was actually being paid.

But as the next few months came along, the recommendation of charging clients directly was no longer mentioned as conversations about future work started coming up. In fact, a couple of the additional projects apparently wouldn’t involve work that was as difficult as what I was doing for the initial project, meaning I would be paid less than what I was earning.

In one of her posts, @carlii_lyon spoke about scanning her body ‘after every interaction and experience’ and if something didn’t feel right for her its because it wasn’t.

I felt as though every conversation that we had turned from positive and motivating to ‘hang on, that doesn’t sound quite right’.

I would go to ‘business development’ meetings, I would do additional writing here and there to finish a section of documentation off, or add a little more somewhere to support a recommendation. I completed a few more interviews with clients and wrote up my notes and added my analysis to the final report as well.

It was all done for free. Over time, all this added up to days upon days of additional work activities that I did and wasn’t being paid for.

I tried to ignore those thoughts within me that gave me the feeling that things weren’t quite right about continuing to work with my mentor. Afterall, she was my mentor! They are not supposed to let you down, right!? I trusted her and thought she would be fair.

I reached out to other friends in the consulting space to talk about my experiences. They heard me out but all basically told me the same thing – that this arrangement was not fair and that I should no longer proceed. I felt devastated and even afraid at letting her down by saying ‘no’ to what she was proposing (even the agreement sent through looked a little iffy…ok a lot).

But I knew deep down that my values were not in line to what she was offering.

So I summoned up the courage and did the following:

• Explained my expectations of employment conditions and my rates. There is a whole other backstory here to how she wanted to pay me which I won’t go into just now.
• Backed up what I was asking for with proof of my prior experience – and referees if required.
• That I was happy to take on any work (no matter the difficulty) wherever she needed me to be but that my rates were my rates and perhaps she would just be willing to consider me for the more intense work like I had been doing. Note, I say wherever because one of the points she said to support her reasoning for paying me less was because I could work from home and be with my daughter more. But the thing is she didn’t have an office anyway (I was willing to work on site at client offices if that meant being paid more).

I said that I totally understand if this did not suit her at the moment and that there were no hard feelings (I really didn’t want to be in any bad books with her, especially not with my mentor…well, former mentor). She still hasn’t come back to me That was a while ago now.

It was so disappointing to go through this, but I feel happy in my response. I know I did the right thing standing up for myself. It has given me the confidence to do it again when required! I knew if I settled now I would forever be walked over. By her and by others. Although this wasn’t the best outcome, I learnt so so much.

Have you had a similar experience?

Feel free to share in the comments below or contact me directly.

I hope this insight has helped you in a similar situation of your own.

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I annoyingly find I do this when something in my career isn’t quite the way I want it to be at that moment in time. I start comparing myself to others my age and where they might be, what project they are working on, what roles they are moving into, their past experience, the list could really be endless!

And it can become quite the downwards spiral if I let it! So I don’t.

These are the things that help me mind my own business when times get a little down:

• Doing something else that helps upgrade my skills – I have started to engage with others in my industry and have begun using my network to start working for myself. Its scary but very satisfying. It is something I am doing on my own with my own terms and the only people I have available to compare myself are to the ones I look up to so I can see how I too can be successful in my new venture.
• Having patience – putting things into perspective, understanding where I am at a particular point in my career and re-evaluating where I want to be are the first steps in this point. I then recognise that it can’t instantly happen e.g. I can’t magically understand and be a master in a new project management methodology within the next week no matter how much I want it! It will take time and of course effort to make it happen.
• Take action and then take some time off – however long you are able to take off, even if its just a day, take it. With that time off, use it to do something to take you a step closer to what it is you want to be doing and where you want to be. Reach out to a mentor and meet them for a coffee, sign up to that course, launch that website, apply for another job. Whatever will make you feel like you have accomplished something with your time. Then, do something fun. I recommend something that you might not do too often. I enjoy going to symphonies at the Opera House. It reminds me that there is a much bigger world out there!
• Keep going – it’s ok to feel down for a little bit and its perfectly normal, don’t worry about that at all. Once you feel what you need to feel, pick yourself up and keep going. There will always be ups and downs so you can be guaranteed, an ‘up’ is coming around to you soon enough.

Bigger steps I have taken have included changing my job and industry altogether. For example, I was part of a cohort of about 20 graduates. We were hired for a two year program within an industry that most people continued working in for years after. It was the type of industry where many people spent their entire careers. Not that there is anything necessarily wrong with this, just in this case the culture tended to be quite toxic and not very innovative in many areas. When we came to the end of the program we all had to find jobs, presumably within the industry, on our own.

At a catchup following our graduation ceremony the week before, the first questions being asked around the table as we were sipping our drinks were about what role we had scored and what level it was at. This continued for years that followed and it was generally just annoying and a little stressful to being constantly compared to everyone else in the group. So this (but among a few other major reasons) I decided I wanted to move out of the industry. I took a risk and found somewhere else to work and I flourished in my new work world. It was fantastic.

It allowed me the freedom to not have certain people and situations around me that reminded me of where I might need to be at a particular point in my career. My mind was free to soak up my new environment and eagerly learn new things. Basically, I was allowed to mind my own business and excel!

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To sum up my first few weeks back, I have the following insights I can offer:

Be patient

Before I left to have my baby I was in a role where I was constantly busy. I expected the same when I returned back on the first day!! I know this was unrealistic but I wanted to get back to being me at work again. It will happen! My diary is already full with upcoming meetings and it didn’t take too long. The work I produce will happen soon too.

Be kind to yourself

It is ok to go through a whole bunch of emotions and thoughts about choices you have made, whether you will still get the same career development opportunities, can you still do what you used to do!?!! It’s all normal and for now I’m taking it day by day. I’m taking the approach of saying yes to everything, being proactive and at the same time explaining my skills and how I would love to develop in the team.

Reach out

This one relates a lot more to the current environment under COVID19. It was pretty lonely and isolating coming back to work and immediately working from home. Meanwhile there was a restructure in the team and 95% of people were new. To combat my loneliness I reached out to my new manager almost everyday, spoke to work friends in other areas and once I was in a program of work, I started being included in a lot more team based meetings.

Put in a little extra effort

For me personally, I don’t feel settled when I can’t see the full picture and get to the point where I feel comfortable with understanding what is going on. I am spending extra time getting familiar with the broader context and more detailed content regarding the new project I have been assigned to. If you can allow yourself a little extra time when you are not at work to do this, even just for the first few weeks, it will pay off.

Wishing you the best of luck if you are returning to work after maternity leave.

For further articles relating to your personal initiative and your career, check out the following link.

The Career Girl

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The idea itself seemed terrifying. But I put my hand up to be considered as a resource for the project anyway. Note, to be a resource. I thought it would be great to learn how to approach a project like this and lend a hand myself.

Background

A little context first. I was part of a central executive team for my boss who had about 1,000 employees located in multiple offices across the state. His team had five people who were dedicated to running his central office. The team had a manager who I reported into and we ultimately reported to our boss.

My manager became the lead for this project. It made sense that all messaging and direction came from this central team. He asked me whether I wanted to co-lead the initiative and I said ‘yes’! Liking the fact that I would have him as a safety net.

Staff from across the organisation nominated themselves to also be a part of the initiative. They first checked in with their managers as to whether they could participate.

After about 6 months, the project really wasn’t going anywhere. This was mostly because of a restructure among the leadership team with culture being the last thing on their minds. As a result, those who had self nominated weren’t very motivated to contribute. They didn’t show up to our regular scheduled meetings or become involved in initiatives.

On top of this, my boss and my manager eventually left the organisation as well! This left me as the key contact for the project. Among all this, I admit I had let the project slide. It was terrifying to lead it on my own! I also didn’t have anyone I felt I could turn to for support with leading a project like this. Going it alone was scary.

After a few months, the organisation had somewhat of a stable leadership team and my new boss wanted the project to kick up again. I was asked to lead the project and think of a way to re-launch it.

This was terrifying and exciting at the same time. I wanted to make a good impression on the new leadership team.

So what did I do? I’ll summarise it here in dot points as I could go on for a little while!

That’s pretty much the essence of what I did and it managed to work. There were definitely other actions I also took throughout the process. But I feel these were the most significant that led to the success of the initiative the second time round.

As time went on we quickly had successful projects launch and people coming together to take part in them. I even started to have people asking me whether they could be a part of the group!

Leading cultural change in an organisation is difficult. Even though it terrified me I did it. When asked to lead my next project, I was less nervous to do so. And so my experience began to grow.

I would love to hear about your own experiences in leading a project that initially terrified you! Please comment below.

For further career insights, check out my blog here.

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Some of the advice you receive will come from a place of genuine care for you and your future, and some of it might not come from such a trustworthy place.

What is the best way to handle and navigate this advice that you haven’t really asked for?

I’ll let you know what has worked for me in the past.

I hear what it is they have to say and do my best to understand where they are coming from. I would recommend trying to understand their own background and experience and similar situations that they might have gone through. This might give you insight into why they are saying what they are saying. It could help you determine whether whether it might work for you.

Once I’ve heard them out, I thank them for their time. Regardless of their position at work, their relationship to me, whether they are genuine or not, I remain polite and neutral in my response.

I tend not to challenge what they are saying, even if I don’t agree with it. If I think that something doesn’t sound quite right, I’ll ask further questions to better understand the point they are trying to make. But that is the extent to which I might challenge what they are saying. Its not worth getting into a disagreement.

I then go away to think about how I will approach whatever situation I might be in, on my own. I do consider what they have said, especially if the advice has come from someone I look up to and respect. But ultimately I know what is right for me and my personal circumstances.

Don’t feel pressured to go down a path that many have gone down. Regardless of whether it is something that someone you trust has suggested. Although managing career advice can be tricky, at the end of the day, it is up to you to choose your direction.

For further insights on managing professional relationships, check out the following articles here.

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You might even get to the final stages of the interview process and think that you are this close to securing that job.

And then you don’t get it.

I know how you feel – I’ve been there too! It can be awful, you might even lose a little confidence, you might be anxious and think what will you now do with your life! You had a certain image of your life going down one direction, you hadn’t thought of it being anything other than that!

Trust me, it could be a blessing in disguise.

You never know what might happen throughout the long process of finding a graduate job. They take months to go through all the necessary processes and there could be multiple stages involved in finally securing a role.

The important thing is to respect and say yes to all opportunities and offers for interviews that come your way, and take them seriously. 

Not landing that grad role with one of the big city firms was something I thought about often during the start of my career. I always thought it was something I had really missed out on – that it would set me back professionally because of all the opportunities and people I wouldn’t be exposed to, or worse, that I wasn’t ever good enough for those places.

Whatever twists and turns are taken throughout your career journey, you can never plan it out and think that it will happen exactly as you have imagined it. Personally, I am grateful that my career went down the new path I was paving for myself. Now, years after all the graduate intakes are through I have been able to hear from others’ experiences about working in one of the big firms for quite a few years, I realise that things have worked out for the better for me personally.

I put my all into the role I was fortunate enough to get. My job certainly was nowhere near one of the big firms, and not even in the city but I still did my best and I respected where I was.

I was able to gain great experience and move up the chain faster than I would have otherwise. And along with this came pay rises which happened a lot quicker than I would have thought! I also met wonderfully smart, creative, passionate and kind people along the way who were willing to help me grow in my career. In addition, I had a great personal and professional balance in my life which I greatly value. It certainly isn’t where I thought I would be, but I think it’s better.

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Being a grad has so many opportunities that come with it.

This is your moment to ask all those ‘silly’ questions (just for the record, no one will think they are silly), this is your moment to ask if you can shadow someone who is at a high level in the organisation, this is your moment to ask whether you can attend an executives only meeting for learning purposes, this is your moment to ask whether you can work on any project you want that is interesting!

Don’t wait to do these things later – you might never have that opportunity.

Don’t be afraid to be given the ‘boring stuff’ from a project either. In previous posts I talk about how important it is to take those small tasks you are given and show that you can handle them perfectly to allow your reputation to grow. Because in reality, it is an entry level role and both you and your employer needs to take some time to find out what you can do before things really take off. As your reputation grows, so does the trust people have in you and the work you are given. All you need is patience and persistence.

From fellow graduates going through my program, we have all shared stories about our experiences. I noticed that there isn’t a set role in someone’s grad year. The grads who gained the most out of their placements were the ones who pushed for more work and showed they could deliver. They are the ones who ended up with great mentors and best of all, job offers at the end!

Your opportunities as a grad are there for the taking. Make the most of them.

Wishing you all the best!

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