I just want to apologise to the people who have left comments on one of my blogs in the last week. I hit the wrong button and have deleted them all. I won’t be doing that again!!

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  A survival job is one you take on while you’re looking for a job in your own area of work. Examples would be supply teaching, short contract work (while the permanent jobholder is off sick, on maternity leave or on secondment) or working in a store or in a call centre.

In the current economic climate, finding and getting a suitable job is not that easy. Even if you see your perfect career job advertised, you still have to go through the recruitment process and beat off the competition to get it. And you may have to do that many times before you actually start work. As time goes by, it may become clear that you have to change strategy, and that could involve getting another job in the meantime to tide you over.

Is it worth it?

 You’ll have to decide whether it is worth getting a survival job in terms of time, finance and general wellbeing. Weigh up the pros and cons.

Time

One of the most common sources of concern is time. It’s worrying to think that a survival job will take up all your time and that you won’t be able to look for a career job. A job with flexible hours or a weekend job could be the answer. Sarah, who took redundancy rather than re-apply for her FE teaching job, comments:
‘I didn’t want to do supply teaching when I left my ‘big’ job, so I decided to find a job in a call centre, where I could do the hours I wanted to. Call centre work is better paid and more flexible than most other jobs I looked at. If an interview comes up, I want time to complete a job application or to do something else; I can be completely honest and take the day off or change shifts. As I don’t get paid if I don’t work, I feel OK about it. My boss here knows that I’m between jobs so I don’t have to pretend that I’m committed to a future in this organisation. She also knows that I work well when I’m here, which is important too. The work itself can be a bit grim, but as it’s not for ever and it’s on my own terms (within reason), it suits me for now.’

Finance

If you’re claiming benefits such as Jobseekers Allowance, you need to be sure that it’s worth coming off benefits. Getting back into the system again may not be possible, and will certainly be impossible if you leave a job of your own accord. You should research Tax Credits to help top up your wages if you’re regularly working 16 hours or over per week on a part-time, low pay PAYE basis. It is supposed to – but doesn’t – apply if you’re doing irregular hours or are self-employed, as the requirements for evidence are inflexible. Applying and getting into the system takes time and effort, but may be worth it if you plan to stay in a part-time job for more than a few months, particularly if you have a family to support.
If you’re not claiming benefits and your money is running out, some income has to be better than no income. Sometimes you just don’t have a choice. Chris, an out-of-work graphic designer, comments:
‘I was lucky. I was asked to do a bit of painting and decorating work for a building contractor friend just as the money situation was getting desperate. I helped him out on the occasional job. He taught me a lot, I enjoyed it, took pride in it and we worked well together. His work kept coming in and I kept accepting. Now I’m good enough to take on some of his projects on my own and advise customers on design and colour schemes as well. I’m still looking for a graphic design job but I really enjoy this. The money isn’t good and it’s physically demanding, but we can manage. Now, I can go for weeks without scanning job adverts. I’d rather do what I’m trained to do, but this keeps the bills paid. It’s OK.’

Wellbeing

Searching websites, sending off for jobs, daytime TV and vacuuming will pall after a time. You can easily become isolated and lose confidence in yourself. Getting a job helps you stay connected with the world, gives your week a structure and diffuses your focus so you don’t become obsessed.
Jay, who relocated for family reasons, leaving his job as a college course administrator, comments:
‘I realised that jobs in my work area were hard to find – and get – where we moved to, so I got a job in a local garden centre at the weekends. I like working outside and am interested in plants. I walk to work, which is great, and I really enjoy my days there. I’m also getting involved in marketing and buying stock, so now I do an extra day per week. One of the best things about it – in contrast to my ‘proper’ job – is that I can leave it all behind at the end of the day. I don’t bring stress home with me.’

Approach the job with respect

If you’re going to do a job, do it wholeheartedly, in good faith and with respect. It won’t do you any good if you can’t see any benefits in the job itself beyond the fact that it’s keeping you going. If you see it as insignificant and worthless, it will just become another grind. And you may have problems getting along with your boss and your co-workers.
Pete, manager of an independent estate agency, had this to say:
‘I’ve employed two temporary staff members who were both teachers in between jobs. The first was interested in the property market and said in the interview that she saw the job as a challenge as she lacked organisation and administrative skills.  She was right! But it wasn’t a problem as she asked questions and was willing to learn from the other staff members, so she improved. She was good with customers, got on well with all of us and I was sorry to see her go.
So I was happy to take on someone else who applied for the vacancy, also a teacher between jobs. That was a nightmare! She came across as capable, organised and pleasant in the interview. But once she started work, she made it clear that the job was beneath her. She was bossy, she talked down to the other staff members and became defensive and difficult when they showed her what to do – and prickly when she made mistakes. Luckily we’d agreed on a four-week trial period and I could let her go. I would be very wary, now, about employing anyone else in that position. ‘    
Once you decide to look for a survival job, don’t imagine that it’s yours for the taking. There’s stiff competition for any job, and you’re just one of a number of applicants. Sarah (from the earlier example, who now works in a call centre while she looks for other jobs) said:
‘I didn’t get the first job I went for, which was a Saturday job in a jewellery and accessories shop. The interview went well, I thought, and I just assumed I’d get it. When I got the phone call telling me that, unfortunately, I hadn’t, I was really taken aback! When I asked for feedback, the proprietor said that he was looking for someone younger who was keen to learn and progress in the business, who would take on more responsibility in the future and see it as a career. Of course it was obvious, but I hadn’t seen it from his point of view.’

Making the decision

The following short exercise will help you to clarify and prioritise your needs before you make a decision.

Prioritising your needs
1. Write down all your needs as a list on one side of a page. For example ‘income’, ‘time to look for jobs’, ‘meeting people’, ‘learning something’. Keep going until you can’t think of any more.
2. Go through the list, numbering each point in order of importance for you. Do this quite quickly and in pencil as you’ll probably change some of them at the next stage
3. Now take your numbers 1 and  2 and ask ‘if I had to make a choice between these two, which would I choose?’
4. Now do the same for numbers 2 and 3, 3 and 4 until you’ve reprioritised the list.
You will now have a set of criteria to help you decide whether to go for a survival job or not and, if you do, what to look for.

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Redundancy is nasty – even if it gives you the push you needed to start afresh. Redundancies in an organisation are also nasty for the survivors. They will often have to deal with:

• feeling bad about the people who have been axed – survivor guilt
• losing friends and team members  
• bearing the brunt of resentement and bitterness from people who were made redundant
• taking on extra work and responsibility (that formerly had been done by the people who have left)
• uncertainty about the job (what if there are more redundancies in the pipeline?) and a feeling of being trapped and having to be grateful.

 OK, so it’s not so bad – they have a job and an income, but it’s no fun for them, either.

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If you’re thinking of working for yourself, this article provides insights that may help you to decide.

Working for yourself is a popular dream then the prospect of full-time employment is bleak.  Most of us know people who are self-employed, and a life of working when you want to, answering to no one and sitting in the garden when the sun shines looks attractive.

But these wonderful features have a darker side:

• Working when you want to can mean either working all the time or working none of the time
• Answering to no-one is a myth as you are always answerable to your customers or clients who are usually more demanding than a boss
• Sitting in the sun may mean that you don’t have any work to do – no money, an uncertain future and a lot of worry.

Is this a good time to go it alone?

The short answer is no – a recession is not the time to start out in business! Having said that, it depends on the kind of business you’re in, your target market, and exactly what you are offering. Thorough research of your market – potential customers, the competition and rates and prices – is absolutely essential before you jump.

If you’re clever and offer something that fills a gap in the market and fits your potential customers’ requirements, (for example plumbing, gardening or small-scale building work) it could be a perfect opportunity to go for it.

If you will be competing in an overcrowded market or one that has been hit by cuts, such as property, gas-guzzling SUV dealerships, advertising or training, then it might not be the wisest choice just now.

What are your options for self-employment?

You can work for yourself in a number of ways. The following are the most popular:

• Running a business as a sole trader (for example, a shop, a café, or an internet business)
• Going into a business partnership with someone else (as freelancers or as a small business)
• Freelancing, consultancy or contracting – selling your skills
• Buying into a franchise.

Running a business as a sole trader

Running your own business involves selling a product or service (or other people’s products and services). You could start your own business or buy someone else’s. You can find businesses for sale on the internet and in local papers. Check the business out thoroughly to make certain that you’re not buying something that isn’t going to succeed.

Freelancing, consultancy or contracting

If you’re selling a skill such as coaching, writing, consultancy or graphic design, you need to have built up a portfolio of experience, projects and clients so that you can attract new clients. Without a proven track record and references, you won’t get far.

Beware of going freelance on the basis of a half-hearted offer from your former company. You might find that you are dropped if times get hard, if their outsourcing policy changes or someone else offers a better service. As a freelancer, you’re owed nothing, particularly not loyalty.

Building and home services people have it a little easier, tending to get work through recommendation. The difficulty is in getting the first few jobs, but if you’re good, other work is likely to follow through word of mouth.

Quoting or estimating costs can be a headache. If your quote is too high, you won’t get the work. Too low and you either won’t make enough to cover your own expenses or won’t get enough money for all your effort – and resentment about it can make the work extremely hard.

Buying into a franchise

As a franchiser, you buy a licensing agreement for the right to operate under the trademark of the franchised business and benefit from their experience, marketing, advertising, promotion and training. McDonalds and Holiday Inns are global examples, but there are many smaller ones available.

Do your research

Whatever you decide to do, you need to find out as much as you can about it:

• Research the subject: books, leaflets and on the internet
• Talk to people who work for themselves already
• Find out about the potential competition in your area – keep your eyes open. Look in the local paper, in the library and on the internet
• Find out what you need to do to make your business stand out from the crowd

Are you suited to self-employment?

Gear yourself up for hard work and setbacks. The self-employed route is paved with disappointment. Resilience and persistence separate the winners from the losers.

Being self-employed isn’t for the faint-hearted. Being your own boss means that you are completely in control and accountable, but it also means that you have to look after yourself. You have no right to holidays or sick pay – taking a day off or being ill means that you lose money. You have to keep on top of your tax and National Insurance contributions, any other insurances and your pension. You must keep your accounts diligently and stay on top of quoting, invoicing and chasing payments.

More significantly, you have to do all your own marketing and selling. Finding new clients and maintaining your customer base is completely dependent on you.

Still interested? What you need to consider

Your product or service

Thinking of the product or service you offer, ask yourself (and be sure of the answer to) the following essential questions:

• What are you offering (exactly what product or service will you offer)?
• Who are you offering it to (your target market)?
• How will you market it and how will your customers access you/it (i.e. website, local press and other outlets, word of mouth, referrals)?

What type of work you want to do

Some kinds of work are better suited to freelancing or working for yourself than others. Being disciplined about the work itself is not usually a problem as you have to respond to your customers’ demands. It’s the marketing, paperwork, organisation, quoting and keeping your accounts up to date that often prove more of a challenge.

Marketing

Most freelancers will tell you that the most difficult and onerous job of all is getting the work and keeping it coming. Unless you are in the unusual and lucky position of having a steady supply of work from different clients (working for just one client is a no-no from a tax perspective).

What self-employed people say about it…

Interviews with a mix of established freelancers and sole traders have revealed some of the most common advantages and disadvantages:

Pros

• Choosing when and where to work
• Not being nailed down to a 9-5 daily schedule
• Being able to go for a walk or day off every now and again
• Being left to get on with the work with no-one breathing down your neck
• No unnecessary pressure from a boss or employer
• Being treated as an adult
• Feeling as if you could walk away from a project if necessary (although it very rarely happens as it usually means losing money!)

Cons

• Working all the time for not much money
• Getting the work – cold calling, selling, marketing
• Admin, accounts and book-keeping
• Quoting, getting the costings right
• Lots of speculative work (i.e. unpaid)
• Isolation – no-one to support you or talk to about your work
• Isolation – no-one to talk to about anything!
• The buck stops with you – you are often blamed for mistakes that aren’t your own
• Very little opportunity for career progression without changing your business (marketing it and starting all over again).

How to get started

Getting started is relatively easy, once you’ve decided on what your business is and how you will market it. There’s plenty of advice and guidance available for free. Get on the internet and search for ‘starting a business’, ‘start-up grants’ or anything else you may need to know.

To get started, you need to:

• Inform your local tax office that you intend to become self-employed
• Produce a business plan if you’re going to set up a business account (Business Link, banks and other organisations will help you with this for free)
• Make friends with your business bank manager – he or she can offer good advice and direction
• Keep detailed and careful records of your income and outgoings from day one
• Decide whether you will use an accountant or submit your own self-assessment accounts. If you decide to use an accountant, make contact from the start.

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As a leader, not only do you have to deal with ambiguity (see my last two posts) but you also have to be resilient and, more importantly, demonstrate and exemplify resilience to your team/people. The two go hand in hand.
I define resilience as ‘bounce-back-ability’, and the competencies (they are all a little different) are something like:
1. Ablility to deal effectively with pressure and stress
2. Ability to bounce back from disappointment or setbacks
3. Ability to remain optimistic and positive in uncertain, new or complex situations
4. Ability to show and maintain strong leadership in uncertain situations.
You may feel uncertain, but you must be able to show that you are strong and that you know what you’re doing to others who will also be dealing with uncertainty and, probably, the same ambiguous situation from another angle. You need to be sure-footed and make them feel that they are in safe hands.

‘If you can keep your head when all about are losing theirs and blaming it on you ….’  and so on. Thanks to Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If…’

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Two recent examples of people dealing with ambiguity (or not) have struck me recently. The first is a shining example and the second points up the way that the media avoid it in their coverage of important events and issues.
First: the recent problems that we’ve had with the Iceland volcano ash and individuals’ responses to it. People were stranded. There were no rules, no precedents and no guidelines. They had to fall back on their own resources. And how ingenious they were! The stories were great – and heartening. I particularly liked the one about the man who bought a second-hand bike so that he could get onto a ferry when there were no more pedestrian tickets available. And there were many more, including stories of people who decided to stay put and settled down to enjoy themselves a bit more. All perfect examples of the ability to deal with ambiguity. Apologies to anyone who had a horrendous time.

Second: this morning I heard an interview with a BP person about the latest go at stopping up the oil leak  in the Mexican Gulf. I’m no apologist for BP’s environmental or human welfare track record nor am I a supporter of the whole oil industry, so I’m not unduly biased in their favour. But I feel frustrated and patronised by the media coverage of this event. Frustrated because I’d like to hear what is actually happening without having to hear the pointless and gratuitous arguments about whose fault it is. Patronising because OF COURSE I – in common with most of the public, I think – understand that this is an unprecedented catastrophe, where unequivocal statements of ‘truth’ and certainty have no place. To hear this person being slapped around and therefore having to be defensive, guarded and economical with the truth – in my name – is unedifying and annoying. We’re grown-ups. We can comprehend the complexity of the situation. Yes, it’s appalling. Yes, it’s BP’s responsibility.  WE’VE GOT IT! They have put their hands up to it. QED. Now I want to know what’s happening in the struggle to get it under control.

I see this as an example of groping unproductively for certainty when there is none. Key word – unproductive.

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It’s hardly surprising in these changing times that tolerating or even thriving in ambiguous situations is a buzz topic in the management and leadership world. There’s a lot of ambiguity about the subject, too. I’m writing and developing coaching activities for it at the moment so have done lots of research. I thought I’d share some thoughts.

What constitutes ambiguity?

Ambiguous situations can be defined as:
- completely new situations with no familiar cues or precedents
- complex situations in which there are a great number of cues and/or stakeholder interests to be taken into account
- apparently insoluble situations (ones that can’t be solved in usual ways).

What does ‘dealing with ambiguity’ mean?

The competencies – what you need to able to do and demonstrate – are generally considered to involve the ability to:
- tolerate and mange change effectively
- shift gears/change course quickly and easily
- decide and act without having the total picture
- tolerate situations where things are up in the air
- move between tasks and activities without having to finish each one
- tolerate and be comfortable with risk and uncertainty.
All of this is clear enough. The question is …

How?

There are – I think – two separate but connected parts to this ability.
(1) to be sure of yourself and finding certainty in your own judgement as opposed to looking outside yourself  for security, ‘the answer’ or ‘the solution’. You won’t find it – that’s the point.
(2) to be alert to and aware of what is going on around you – being present.

1. Being sure of yourself

This involves:
- knowing who you are and what you’re capable of
- relying on yourself and not on others, on tools and models or on precedents
- confidence in your own judgement
- viewing uncertainty as a challenge/opportunity rather than a threat
-  using your imagination, intuition and initiative
- being present and staying focused on the moment.
You need to be able to access and bring all your capabilities to the moment – knowledge, experience, skill, judgement, intuition.

Being and staying present

I think this needs explanation. I don’t just mean physically, I mean emotionally and mentally as well. You have to be alert and aware – of yourself, your responses, your surroundings, what is going on and the people around you. Think of your sensory awareness (vision, hearing etc) as a wide satellite dish, representing your full attention to what is actually happening – NOW.
To do that, you can’t have a brain-full of thoughts, voices or  anxieties. You’re not fully present if you’re preoccupied with something else. For example if you’re:
- focused on a pre-planned goal/objective
- thinking about what should be happening
- worrying about doing the right thing
- planning the next step
- worrying about something that has already happened
- worrying about other people’s perceptions of you.
It all takes work and practice, even if you’re temperamentally disposed to it.

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In the last month, I’ve been asked this most basic of questions by two of my coaching clients. Strangely, no-one has asked it before. Even more strangely, given that I’m a coach and my practice is predicated on the idea that talking about things is beneficial, I didn’t have a pat response. So I’ve been getting my ducks in a row.

First up: by things, here, I mean feelings, ideas and opinions.

Why talk?

 1. It helps you to get your thoughts straight

When you’re thinking things through in your head, you tend to stick to familiar assumptions and skim over issues. You keep going over the same tracks, cutting corners and avoiding the messy areas.  Which is why it’s possible to have the same problem or dilemma going round and round and round, with no perceivable way out. 

 2. You prepare your thoughts ‘for consumption’

When you are communicating your thoughts, ideas and feelings, you automatically make an effort to organise and present them to make them as clear as possible for the other person. However jumbled your delivery is, you do step back, and in the process you give yourself another perspective.

3. Hearing yourself talk gives you another perspective

As you speak, you hear it all again from another point of view.  Self-consciousness means that you tend to imagine what it sounds like to the other person.

4. Another person’s perspective allows you to see the issue more clearly  

Someone else can point out gaps and inconsistencies in your thought processes. Ideally, he or she will ask the right questions and help you to take your thinking ‘off road’, away from the well-worn tracks and your entrenched positions. You will need to find someone you can trust to listen carefully, have your interests at heart, to be impartial and to be able to separate feelings from thoughts. This is where a coach can help.

Reservations and pitfalls

Talking about things is not always ‘the answer’ and isn’t always beneficial. It depends how you do it. For example:

• it doesn’t work when you talk about the same thing in the same way, over and over again until it becomes an abstraction and a ’script’. You have to be genuinely open to another point of view
• it won’t work when the underlying purpose of the talking is self-justification rather than exploration
• or when the underlying purpose is to ‘recruit’ people onto your team or to your way of thinking. Nothing wrong with this if you are aware  of what you’re doing. Just no good if your purpose is to examine, explore and make sense of something.

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The difference between being creative and being imaginative is that if you’re creative, you will have created something. It doesn’t have to be Art with a capital A – a painting, a symphony or a novel. It can be a creative report, a flowchart, an action or a way of acting.

Whatever it is, it has to be out there and not in your head. It has to be something you can point to and identify. Can you? Or is it still in your head? In which case, it’s imagination.

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OK. Let’s look at it another way. Here am I trying to define charisma – not to find out what it is but to find a way of expressing what I know.  By trying to describe it, what I’m doing  is unpacking and identifying the complicated strands and shades of meaning that make up my own understanding of it. In the process I find out more.

So perhaps another way round would be to identify people who have it and unpack its components from that list.

Here’s a really simple exercise to help tap into intuition and judgement. I’ve used it when I haven’t been sure of how I feel about a certain aspect of something or someone.
You do have to be clear of your terms of reference or it won’t work. It’s good because you’re not distracted by other considerations – whether you like the people, approve of them or anything else. You’re focusing on just one aspect.
1. Start with the aspect you want to know about (charisma)
2. Think of the opposite attribute (‘no charisma’ is good enough)
3. Think about what charisma means to you and get the feel for it
4. Then say the names of people you know or know about (I’m thinking famous or at any rate, in the public eye), focusing on ‘charisma or no charisma’, making a very quick decision about each one. Yes or no will do once you’ve got your focus.

You may want to start off with people you’re sure about before you get to the trickier ones, just to get you in flow with the exercise. It’s the trickier ones that stretch you, make you dig deeper into your intuition and can also surprise you. 
I started with politicians: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Thatcher, Ming/Menzies Campbell, Alistair Darling etc

So I’m thinking: Blair – yes, Brown – no, Cameron – yes, Thatcher- yes,  Campbell – no, Darling – no.

To get the definition, go through your ‘yes or no’ list and look at what they have or don’t have that made you say yes or no.

However, in this case, something is not right. I’m pretty sure that if I met Gordon Brown, Ming/Menzies Campbell or Alistair Darling in person, my view would change. Even the most uncharismatic famous or important person would have some sort of presence or charisma in the flesh by virtue of their authority and the power/importance ascribed to them by other people, including me.

It doesn’t seem quite right on another front, either, because I’m missing information. I know that people can have stage presence and have no personal presence and vice versa. As I’ve never met any of the people on my list face to face, I don’t know whether this is or isn’t true of them. I think, then, that with this list, I’m talking about stage presence.

And before he was Lib-dem leader and savaged by a public baying for youth, I liked Ming/Menzies on the radio – he had radio presence. 

So I do the exercise with family members and friends.  As I do this, I realise that I’m concerned with personal presence. I think this is not the same as charisma, it’s more like charm (see my last blog entry on charisma).

So I’m now contemplating 3 kinds of presence:

• personal presence – a sort of small-scale but compelling charisma/charm that ordinary people might have. People notice them when they come into a room etc.
• stage/camera presence – you can have that with or without personal presence and all shades in between. I saw Prince at the 02 arena a few years ago and although I was right up on the highest balcony, his tiny faraway figure crackled with a kind of electrical charge. Some actors and singers have more of it offstage than on - fairly unassuming offstage, then they light up on stage. Not that I think Prince is either very large, even close to, or unassuming…
• charisma - more like the Weber definition (see previous blog). Importance and presence that includes the trappings of power - as much to do with an accretion of other people’s perceptions as with an inherent quality, all of which builds into iconic status.  

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