anne hubben, creative career coach         anne@rubycreatives.com 917.834.0354

creating a vision for the new year

Monday, December 28th, 2009
 

I’ve not been writing because i decided to take a break for the holidays. I’m using this week to catch up on my reading, see some movies and think about what my “vision” is for 2010.

The movies and books are the easy part, the “vision” is less concrete and as a result, I’ve been avoiding it. Then i realized that if I write about it as if I were helping someone else, it would undoubtedly “unstick” me as well.

So, in the spirit of offering help and giving it to myself, here are my 6 steps for creating your vision for 2010.

Step 1 — Write down the different parts of your life, i.e. professional, personal, health, community. Whatever you see as important parts of your life.

We all strive to live a balanced life, but more often than not, when we excel in one area, it can create a desert in another. In my case, my coaching business is going very well, but I’ve made no effort to meet new people in Cleveland where I now live. If you’re not in my neighborhood, I probably haven’t met you. (Luckily, I have great neighbors).

I’ve been here a year and I still say that I just moved here. It’s partially not wanting to let go of New York but largely because I just don’t feel connected. There are so many ways to keep in touch with friends that live elsewhere that it’s easy to have the illusion that you have enough friends. I’ve got several close friends, but they all live in other cities — L.A., San Francisco, NYC. You get the idea. I need some friends who I can see in person. Yes, I need new friends.

Step 2 — If there’s something you’d like to change in each category, write it down. Taking my example above, I write under my Personal Life — make new friends. It feels weird to write that down at my age, but anyone who has moved to a new city as an adult knows that it’s not as easy as when you’re younger. We have more things to take care of, less time, more criteria for who we want to spend it with. As adults we often fall in to friendships through our jobs, kids or yoga classes. I work at home with my 2 dogs and am very picky about my yoga. Clearly, I need to do something.

Step 3 — Write down what actions you will take to make the change happen. So for my objective to make new friends, I’ve put “join the art museum” and find a Meetup group. I found one where people meet and let their dogs run around. Perfect. Then if I don’t meet anyone that I connect with, at least i’m doing something for my dogs.

Step 4 — If you’re in to measuring results, you could set goals like in my case “invite one new person to coffee every week.” For me this just feels like pressure, so I’m not going to do that. However, if i notice in February that I’ve not done anything towards the new vision, then I might reassess and add some more specific goals like that.

Step 5 — It also could help to add dates to complete things by. This would be weird for me in the personal portion, but professionally, I know that I want to send out a promotional mailing in January, so i will attach a date to that. At some point, I need to pursue more corporate clients, so I will commit to a date for that too.

Step 6 — Share your goals with someone or partner with someone to support each other in reaching the goals. In my case, this blog post counts as announcing that I’ve made goals. Feel free to check in with me in the coming months. I also have a friend that I’d like to share my goals with to keep me committed.

okay, so those are 6 steps, but let’s say you hate working this way. You like to be a little more lighthearted about creating a vision for the new year. Another option is to write a story about how you see your life. I did this once with a coach that I had and it was very helpful. I wrote as if I were writing in my journal — something like: “I walked downstairs to let the dogs out and went out to get tomatoes from my garden” Part of that vision actually occurred too. Not all of it, but some of it and that was interesting. It’s basically setting an intention. I believe in this stuff because I’ve seen it work.

When I first moved to NYC and was looking for a place to live, I found myself at St Marks Bookshop on 8th Street and I thought “wow, I’d really like to live in this sort of neighborhood.” I ended up finding an apartment on 1st Avenue right in the heart of the East Village. I stood at a payphone screaming to my sister “You just would not believe where I’m standing right now and that I live here!” I was ecstatic.

I felt that way this summer when I ate my lunch on my screened in porch looking out at the vegetable garden that I planted.

Okay, so I’ve now convinced myself of the importance of creating visions in life. I hope i’ve offered some sort of insight for you to do the same for 2010. Happy New Year everybody.

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looking for a change? be specific

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
 

My last post about tweaking your job search made me think about something else that I think is important and that’s being specific about what you want to do next. My sister refers to this in her guest post about networking and I often talk about it with my clients.

It could also be relevant if you like where you work now, but feel that you’d like to make a change. The change could be taking on more responsibilities or even creating a whole new role. It’s important to be specific about what your vision is, rather than expecting someone else to fill in the blanks. Your employer or potential employer wants to know how you can help them, not how they can help you.

Yes, it’s important to be open to opportunities, but if you’re open in the “I don’t know what I want to do, I just know I need a change” way, then nobody is going to know what to do with that. It’s better to do your research and soul searching before meeting with anyone. Save the wondering and thinking out loud for your friends, family or better yet, your coach.

When I refer to research, it’s not just looking things up, but asking yourself questions like: what do I want to do? Who do I want to work with? What type of environment do I want to work in? Do I like buttoned up or casual? What are my strengths? What motivates me? Do I want to manage people?

By asking these questions, you eventually formulate a statement about or vision of what you’d like to do. It’s important that it’s concise and clear.

You could start with:

“I’d like to be in a role where I facilitate communication between the creative and technology departments.”

Then ask yourself why?

“Because the last 3 major projects missed their deadline and I’ve tracked the cause to miscommunication between these 2 departments.”

Why are you the right person to do this job?

“Because I started out as a designer but am now working in technology, I understand the challenges that both groups have and can communicate effectively with them as well.”

Now you put that together to get: “We need someone to facilitate communication between the creative and technology departments, since I’ve been both a designer and technologist, I’d like to take on this role.”

Then if this is an actual meeting, you could go on to list what you would do to create better communication. Show that you’ve given it some thought and you have a plan or a proposal.

If you’re looking for work, it might be something more like “With my background in design and technology, I’m looking for a role where I can bridge the gap between these two disciplines and facilitate better communication.”

Okay, so it’s a very simplistic example, but hopefully you get the idea and can apply it to your own situation. This could be called your Personal Brand Statement or Elevator Pitch or your Spiel. Run it by a few people that you trust to see if it comes across in the way that you’ve intended. Practice saying it so that it flows and you’re confident with it.

Once you’ve done this part, then by all means, be open to opportunities.

Posted in change, communication, goals, self promotion, state of mind | No Comments »

setting goals

Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
 

In my “review” post, I mentioned that you should walk out of your review knowing what you need to work on to either get better at what you’re doing now, or to get to the “next level.” I thought I’d expand on that because it’s really important.

Clearly defined goals help keep your eyes on the prize. Everyone’s prize is different, but creating a plan to get there is pretty universal.

In HR lingo, your goals need to be SMART. That is -– Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant and Timely. Yes, it does sound dry, but not when you break it down. It actually becomes sort of fun.

Every goal that you set should be SMART.

There are many different types of goals for many different levels. I’ll start with one more appropriate for someone who has been in the business for a few years, and run it through the SMART wringer:

Instead of saying “I’m going to win an award” you would say “I’m going to win a CLIO award by submitting my Solar Milkmaid campaign by March 25th.”

Specific: To win an award is specific, but to say a CLIO award is more specific. It’s not saying any award, but a CLIO, one of the industry’s highest honors.

Measurable – The proof is in the pudding – you either win the award or not. There, it’s measured.

Attainable – The work is good, made the client lots of money, was talked about in the blogosphere, tweeted, viewed, applauded and critiqued. Yes, it’s possible that it could win an award.

Relevant – To win an award in the ad industry has big wow factor. It says you’re creating impactful strategic work for your clients, and can even advance your career.

Timely – There’s never a bad time to win an award. Whether it’s a hot dog eating contest or a CLIO, an award is very “right now”. But most importantly for your company, you’ve demonstrated that you can deliver great work within a set timeframe.

Some other goals for different levels might be:

_ Make sure I work on a new business pitch by Q2.

_ Increase client spending by making recommendation for broadening marketing campaigns beyond banner ads with interactive games or contests.

_ Take InDesign class at SVA to improve my time spent executing ideas.

You get the idea. Check each of your goals against those guidelines and you’ll find they become realistic and doable and not so mysterious or overwhelming. You should now have a roadmap for your success, instead of driving around aimlessly.

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