Career Management Includes Eggs in Multiple Baskets

“Women with multiple roles, like mother, wife, employee or volunteer, are better equipped to handle stress than women without multiple roles” states research by Personnel Decisions International, of Minneapolis.

As many as 10 years ago in the March 16, 1999 Wall Street Journal,  a study by Psychologist Vonda Mills, showed that 275 women in management roles were better able to maintain perspective when there were a variety of places toward which they could direct their energies.

Gender aside, anyone who works anywhere will tell you the same thing: the more possibilities you are working on, the better able you are to cope when some just don’t work out.

Anytime you define yourself by one person or thing; a job, a mate, a community, even a value, you are more apt to be disappointed, even devastated if something happens to change or break the connection.

The greater the damage, the longer it takes to return to creative and productive thinking.

The following scenarios, names changed, are illustrative:

Joe Haskins, Vice President of Operations, had dedicated his career to one company. He put his work before everything and everyone else. His children didn’t know him, his wife didn’t like him, and his neighbors didn’t recognize him. When his company was sold, his division was reorganized, his department was reengineered, and his job was gone. Like everyone else, Joe was escorted to the parking lot, where his belongings were delivered to him in a box.

The locks were changed, the passwords altered. He was physically whole and emotionally broken. He lost his identify along with his title and didn’t know where he was supposed to find himself.

Carol Ferral was a third year attorney with a prominent law firm. Now she’s unemployed and unsure of what’s next. For as long as she could remember she wanted to become a lawyer. Her teachers, parents, and friends agreed that she had made The Perfect Choice. Carol was a standout student and attended a top tier law school. Despite her intellectual prowess, she was surprised to find her student colleagues to be more difficult, more competitive, more solitary and more aggressive than she had anticipated. It was a foreshadowing of what her brief legal career was to become.

Carol was smart enough to make it, but not tough enough to take it. Whatever she thought it would be, it wasn’t. Add to that mix, a staggering law school debt, and a long line of disappointed hometown boosters who couldn’t believe their gal couldn’t hack it. To her credit, she had the savvy to cut her losses before her job eroded her emotional capital. Carol had no idea what else she would do, she just knew it would have to be better than this.

Here’s the bottom line. Hackneyed expressions like “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” and “always hedge your bets” were coined by those who learned their lessons the hard way, and by those who told them so.

Figure out what your innate strengths are, and if you don’t know (ironically, few of us do) ask those who know you best. Once you are clear about what you bring to the table, you’ll find that there are many places that can benefit. You are not limited to one field, one company, or one geographical area. Once you realize that, you can network your talents more effectively and efficiently. Your story is a simple one: this is what I do best and here are the ways that I can benefit your organization.

There is freedom in knowing that there are options available to you. Flexibility is a basic requirement of employees now and going forward.

Here’s what else it’s going to take: the ability to handle a variety of responsibilities, an increased need for quick response, and a thirst for challenge. The more you’ve got, the more you’ll get. Take charge of yourself and you’ll take charge of your career.

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Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.