Afleveringen
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Are you a bit of a time optimist?
Do you often take on a new task thinking: “Oh - I can easily squeeze this in between the next two meetings”?
Only to find that you needed the time between meetings to go to the bathroom, find your papers, respond to an urgent email and a question from a colleague...And at the end of the day, you’re feeling deflated and behind in your work – even if you’ve been crazy busy all day?
If you recognize this kind of scenario - then today’s episode is for you!
I’m going to share what I call “3 secret steps” to how time estimation can make your workday less frazzled and support your UN Career.
And it’s not a gimmick when I talk about secrets here, because the skill of time estimation seems to be a well-kept secret in most organizations I’ve worked with, and definitely also in the UN!
You can find the show notes for this episode at www.barbarakandersen.com/25.
Lack of time estimation means lack of realism
Does that sound dramatic? Well, I’ve taught personal effectiveness tools to hundreds of clients and whenever we discuss to-do lists and the value of time estimation, people will jump through all kinds of hoops to avoid doing it.
But when they sit down with me and we go through their to-do list together, it turns out that often their lists are off the charts. And sometimes wildly off the charts.
Because what they write down is what they’d LIKE to get done. Not what they have time to do.
I see people planning tasks for 8 or 10 hours, when maybe they only have 3 or 4 hours, considering meetings, lunch and other planned events.
So, what does it mean for your workday, when your planning is unrealistic? It means that very often you don’t get done what you had planned which has two unhappy side effects:
You feel behind – and that makes you feel deflated You easily get into situations where you have trouble delivering what you have promised to othersBoth of which are bad for your self-esteem and can affect your reputation in the long run.
3 secrets to how time estimation can improve your work and your UN Career
Without some element of time estimation, it’s impossible to get a realistic picture of how much time you have available – and how much time you need.
So, why don’t we all do it? Well, as far as I can see there are three reasons for that:
Nobody taught us that we should do it – or how to do it!When we hear about it we suspect it will be difficult and take too much time!We don’t want to face the fact that we don’t have time for everything. And I’ll share an example of that in a moment.So today I want to share with you the 3 simple steps to make realistic and effective planning with time estimation:
Write your tasks down.Estimate how much time you think you need for each task, and write it down next to the task.Add up the time you’ve estimated and compare to how much time you’ve got available.So, as you can see it’s not rocket science. The secret lies in being consistent!
If we for example look at your workday in the office, it might look like this...
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/25 where you’ll also find the detailed description of how to use the 3 steps, I mention above.
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I’m excited to share an interview with my friend and former colleague in the UNDP – and someone I consider a mentor - Ms Christine Heyting.
Christine is Australian and we met in 2013 when she worked with UNDP Headquarters in the area of performance management and leadership development. Since then, she’s been a regular contractor for various UN agencies doing missions on four continents.
Before that, she was an HR Director in the private sector for about 15 years.
I asked Christine to come on the podcast because I think that with her wealth of HR and leadership experience - combined with her experience from both inside and outside the UN - she has a unique perspective to share. And she’s also a lot of fun to talk to!Christine shares lots of advice from her experience in areas such as:
imposter syndromefeeling stucknetworkingmentoring (as well as reverse mentoring, which was a new concept for me!)plus some very practical tips on moving into consultingI’m certain therefore that there is something to take away for every one of us and I really hope you will enjoy this interview as much as I did!
If you enjoyed this episode, then please think about sharing it with a colleague or a friend in the UN who might be motivated or inspired by Christine’s tips and advice.
See the full show notes at: www.barbarakandersen.com/24.
You can read more about Christine HERE.
If you're interested in more tips on going the consulting way, you can refer to the book Christine recommends in the interview: Elaine Biech: "The New Business of Consulting"
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/23 where you’ll also find the 3 keys to take control of your own reality.
This episode is about a topic that is on the one hand very basic – but on the hand quite essential for how you can effectively - and successfully - deal with your career. And your life!Simply put, it's about working with the reality you’re in!
Or dealing with the hand you’ve been dealt, you could say.
I’ve noticed how we spend a fair bit of time and energy wishing that things were different from what they are.
That's quite human and natural, but the problem is when we get stuck in dreaming of what the perfect state should be – and then lament about why the world isn’t like that.
And that’s just not very helpful when it comes to taking action to move forward in the direction you want to go.
One of my favourite teachers taught me this great sentence that has inspired and helped me a lot:“When you fight reality, you lose. Not only every time – but every single time!”
Now, that doesn’t mean that we have to like or approve of the reality. Or that we have to keep living with it. But it means that we have to acknowledge – or accept - that the reality is what it is right now.
You have to acknowledge the reality of how your organisation operates, what the rules are, what your supervisor’s choices are, etc. Because only when you do that, can you find out what is the best way to move on – given the reality you’re operating in.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/23 -
Hello, and welcome to this 4th episode in a small series I’ve called: “Plan and Succeed”.
Previously in this series, I’ve talked about effective planning principles, goalsetting and the underrated importance of having an overview. All of these things are of course interlinked and influence each other, but in this small series, I’m trying to take them apart a bit so that you can apply them more easily in your own work and life.
Find the FULL show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/22 where you’ll also find the 3 keys to an effective to-do list.
Today's episode is about a very concrete element of your daily planning.
Feeling happy in your UN career certainly has a lot to do with for example having interesting work and good relationships with peers and supervisors. But a very fundamental requirement for happiness at work - which I think that both organisations and individuals overlook - is to feel that you’re in control of your work and can manage it with the time you have.I’ve worked with several clients who felt stressed out and frustrated with their work when we started working together. They were wondering whether their job was still right for them and whether maybe they should find something else altogether.
And after working very consistently on creating an overview, establishing realism and solid prioritizations in their work they found out that that they still liked their work. They’d just lost overview and control which led to overwhelm and stress. (And I know from my own personal experience that it’s difficult to be happy at work when you’re stressed.)
But with that control re-established with effective planning tools that suited them their individual jobs and personalities, they came back and told me that they were happy with their work again.
First Create an Overview
In episode 19, I talked at some length about why you need to start by creating an overview for any kind of planning or effort to make time for important actions. If you haven’t already, I suggest you pause this episode and go back and listen to that episode which can find at www.barbarakandersen.com/19.Without an overview, it’s like you’re standing in the valley looking up on the mountain. It’s very difficult to see what’s the best way to the top – or to find the easiest way to the valley on the other side. But if you can get an overview with a map, then you can plan the best path for yourself.
So, as I said, a key element of feeling happy with your work is to feel in control of your work. To know that you are in control of your time and your tasks – instead of you being controlled by work.
And one simple tool but very effective tool to help you with this is an effective to-do list.
Now, I can almost hear some of you say. "A to-do list? But Barbara, I have a to-do -list – and it just makes me feel overwhelmed!"
3 Common Problems with Most To-Do-Lists
Well, in my experience, there are some key elements that most people are missing when writing their to-do lists. And that’s exactly when it can lead to overwhelm instead of clarity of mind.The 3 most important problems are:
A lot of people think they’re creating a to-do list, but in reality, they depend on their memory for many of their tasks and only write down some of them. In that way, you use a lot of energy trying to remember things. In fact, much more brainpower than you realise and that’s brainpower you need to do your work – instead of thinking about what is the next task.Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/22.
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I’m thrilled to be able to share in this episode an interview with my good friend, Dr. Akjemal Magtymova.
Akjemal is a national of Turkmenistan where she started her UN career in 1998 as a G5 programme assistant with UNFPA. Today (in 2021) she serves with WHO as a D2, Head of Mission and Representative in Syria.I asked Akjemal to come on the podcast because she’s had – and has - a very interesting career and I’m fascinated by her approach to work and life and how she, together with her family, has made decisions for her career over the years. In the podcast she also shares her thoughts on mentorship and the importance of human relations, on passion in work – and much more.
Akjemal is used to being interviewed by newspapers and TV stations like Al Jazeera and BBC, so I’m honoured that she took the time to come on the show.
I always feel like I get an injection of UN pride when I talk to Akjemal and I think that in her reflections on her career there is something to take away for all of us.
And who knows? Maybe some of Akjemal’s reflections will inspire you in your own career?
If you enjoy this episode, then please consider sharing it with a colleague or a friend in the UN who might be motivated or inspired by Akjemal’s story.
You can either share the episode directly from your podcast app or you can send them a link to the podcast website at www.barbarakandersen.com/21.
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Is it time to get going?
Hello, and welcome to this short episode which is about a mindset issue that many of us struggle with:
When is it time to take the next step?
Or to use my favourite car analogy: When is it time to go from “being parked” to “start driving”?
Do you want something else?
For this episode, I was inspired by a conversation with a new client the other day where she shared with me how for several years she had been feeling, well... - not really happy in her job. She had a dream of “something else”, but she had not really been able to articulate that dream.
And she was also feeling a bit guilty about wanting something else because it was a good job that she was in. She felt she ought to be happy.
The reason she was talking to me about it was that she had finally reached that stage where she knew that she had to act. She could no longer stay in that “dreaming of something else” stage but needed to move to the next stage. She needed to take action.
Since she still wasn’t sure exactly what that “something else” should be, her first action step was to contact me and get help to figure that out.
Being stuck in the dream stageAnd as we spoke, I was reminded of the time when I was in that dream stage (for lack of a better word) myself.
I spent a fair number of years where I was dreaming of something else, but where I didn’t really know what else to do.Because there were many things to be happy about in my job.
I had great colleagues, a nice boss, interesting work responsibilities and I was working for a wonderful cause. But still, I was not satisfied. And I felt a bit guilty about not being happy.
When I told people about my job they were impressed. Thought it sounded really exciting. “Yes”, I said. “It is!”And I thought: “That’s right. I ought to be happy!”
And still, I wasn’t. Not because there was anything wrong in any concrete way. But because I needed, and wanted, to move on. Learn new things. Use different sides of my skills. Meet new people.
It just wasn’t clear to me what that “something else” should be
I often meet clients who are in a similar situation. And I notice that it often also comes up when I speak to people in private contexts.So, I have a very important point I want to make today:
It’s ok to want something else!
Even if you don’t have a clear career plan.
t’s ok that you want to quit and move to the next part. Do something else!
Maybe you’re right now longing to move on, but you’re worried about taking that next step. You’re concerned about the unknown.
Because you know what you’ve got, right? Even if you’re not super happy about what you’ve got.
And quite possibly you’re also exhausted from the daily grind you’re in and find it hard to muster the energy to make a move.
What are you missing out on while you're waiting?
On the weekend a good friend talked about the time when he took up his first management position. It had been a hard transition for him, but also very rewarding. And he reflected upon this and said: “I should have made that move much earlier.”The reason why he had waited so long to make that move was that he was so comfortable with knowing his old job very well. He felt very competent there. And very safe. And there’s something to say for that of course.
But while waiting to take that step, he was missing out on personal and professional development. The excitement of learning and mastering new responsibilities. Have influence.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/20
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Hello, and welcome to this 3rd episode in a small series I’ve called: “Plan and Succeed”.
Have you ever had that feeling at the end of the workday that you couldn’t really tell what you’d been doing all day?
Back in the days, I distinctively remember evenings where my husband asked how my day had been, and I responded something like “umm, ok, I guess?”. All the while I was frantically searching my brain to find out what I actually had done that day.
Sure, I’d been crazy busy attending endless meetings and responding to questions from colleagues and clients in between meetings. And whenever there was a small break somewhere, I had been checking and responding to emails.
But what had I actually achieved with all this busyness?
That was sometimes hard for me to put a finger on. For as a good friend phrased it: I’d been "running around like a headless chicken". An image that really says it all…
Because on a workday like that, I’d been racing through the day trying to tackle all the requests and tasks thrown at me. But I had totally lost the overview. And that left me with a vague, but unpleasant feeling of having lost control.
Having an overview sounds like a very simple thing, yet so many of us tend to want to rush right into action, that we overlook the essential starting point of creating an overview.
Do You Know Where You’re Going?
Maybe you remember my car analogy from episode 3, the one called “What Drives You – And What Drains You?”?
Well, have you ever been driving your car to a place where you were a little late and now you were not entirely sure which way to take?
And then you decided that you didn’t have the time to stop and look at the map or set the GPS. So, you just drove on, hoping that you were going the right way. But unfortunately, you got even more late, because you got even more lost before you decided that you really had to stop, and course correct.
The most effective thing would of course have been to get your overview and your bearings before you started out in the first place
And the second most effective thing would have been to stop at the time you realised you might be lost and get your overview back. Look at the map or set the GPS.
I’m sure you’ve guessed that I’m talking about my own experience here! And when it has happened, I have every time promised myself to always make sure to get an overview and set the directions before I start driving next time
So why do we keep ending up in these situations? Not only in traffic but also in the workplace and in life in general?
Can you see the wood for the trees?
We’re so busy getting work DONE, that we start racing off without being sure if we’re going in the right direction. Because often in our work, we can’t see the wood for the trees. We’re so busy dealing with immediate urgencies that we sometimes lose track of what our bigger objectives are.Creating – and keeping - an overview is vital for succeeding with any kind of endeavour.
Because when you have an overview, you have the full picture. And then you can make clever and effective prioritizations.
And on top of that, you also create a sense of calm for yourself.
Because even if there’s a lot to do, and even if you might not realistically be able to do it all yourself, with an overview, you know you haven’t forgotten anything. Which is a fear that is often a big stress factor in itself.
And when you have an overview, you can prioritize and decide what needs to happen.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/19
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Hello, and welcome to this 2nd episode in a series I’ve called: “Plan & Succeed”.
In the previous episode, I argued that good planning and organizational skills will help you both in your daily work – and in your career. (That’s the episode called “Can Planning Help Boost Your UN Career?” which you can find at www.barbarakandersen.com/17).
Planning, structure and prioritisation will of course help you be more effective with your day-to-day tasks and projects. Which will make you feel better about your work and your professional life. And which will certainly add to your professional reputation – and in that way to your career development.
But it’s also essential for deliberately setting specific and actionable goals and milestones for your own career development. And, maybe most importantly, helping you take action on these goals. Creating that happy UN Career for yourself!
Do you enjoy working with goals?
Or do you maybe have more of a love/hate relationship with goals?Many of my clients are in that last category.
They often love the idea of goalsetting. When it’s still far in the distance and the goals make them feel industrious and ambitious.
But then, often when the goals are set, they suddenly feel burdensome, and you can start worrying that you might not have the strength and the resources to reach them.
Then it can feel like the goals are looming over you. Like concrete blocks that will fall on your head if you don’t work hard enough and reach your goals on time. And that doesn’t feel motivating at all.
I’ve definitely experienced this love/hate relationship with goals myself until I learned how good goalsetting works for me.
So, I want to show you how to enjoy working with goals because you’ll see how clear your goals get. And you’ll appreciate the way well-framed goals will help pull you towards the dreams you want to achieve.
So, why are goals so important?Because goal setting can be a very powerful tool in your professional development!
What’s great about using goals in a very deliberate way is that they are the way to making your dreams and visions (and your ambitions) tangible. When you do it right, they will
- Push you towards the dream of the vision you want to achieve, and they’ll
- Pull you at the same time
They help push you because they remind you of your ambition. That you have made this promise to yourself and that you don’t want to let yourself down on. This becomes especially powerful if you also create accountability for yourself.
And they pull you because if you have created your goal in the right way then the image and the feeling that you have of your goal will be a strong attraction and motivation for you. Just like putting a beautiful photo of your next holiday location on the wall will pull you every time you look at it.
So, well-developed goals are really the way to move on your dreams and visions. And ambitions!
The SMART way to powerful and motivating goals
There’s a great guide for setting up goals, and you might already have heard about it. It’s called SMART.
However, even if you already know about it, my experience is that most people don’t really use it very well. If they use it all. And that’s a big shame because SMART is both easy and effective.
So, this is how it works...
Read the full show notes at http://www.barbarakandersen.com/18
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Welcome to this 1st episode in a new series called: “Plan and Succeed”.
In the last few episodes, I’ve talked about some of the big issues around career and work life. Your visions. Your dreams. And your values. So, basically all about what fulfils you in your work and life.
However, a very important element in succeeding with all of this is your ability to make your visions and dreams tangible. And take action on them.
So, in this new series I’ll share some very simple, but very effective techniques for planning, creating overview and – maybe most importantly – prioritising your time, your attention and your resources.
You can find the complete show notes for today’s episode at www.Barbarakandersen.com/17.
What’s really important to understand here is that good habits and techniques around planning, will help you not only become more effective with your day-to-day work tasks. But also help you reach the bigger goals for your career and for your personal life.
How does planning help?
No matter our personality, our job function, our family status, we all benefit from some level of structure, overview and clear prioritization.
In fact, your ability to plan and prioritise can be a key determining factor for creating and maintaining a happy UN Career.
Your ability to plan and prioritise is critical in order for you to:
succeed with your work projectshave a general peace of mind, knowing that you’re on top of your worksustain a balance between those work tasks that are urgent (of which we all seem to have too many)– and those tasks that are important, but don’t have a deadline (and are therefore often left on the back burner too long. Think for example: strategy, development, health, training, etc.)find time for planning and executing long term professional and career developmentand last, but not least, to create and maintain a balance between work and home lifePlanning is worth your time!
A big eye opener for me was when I heard the quote from the American time management guru, David Allen, which says something like this:
”For every minute you use on planning, you save 10 minutes on execution!”When I heard that the first time, I thought: “Hmm, that sounds just too good to be true.” It actually seemed sort of counterintuitive to me, because it often felt like I had so much on, that I couldn’t possibly waste 5 minutes on planning. I just wanted to throw myself headfirst into the email inbox!
But, in my own personal experience, it has proven true again and again – that, really, for every minute I use on planning I save more on the execution of the task or the project.
It’s always more effective to get an overview and prioritise your time. And your resources.
The better I think through
my prioritiesmy planning and the most effective way to deal with a taskthe right order of action stepsthe amount of time I have available and the time I need for a taskThe more I do of all that – the better my day and my week flows. The more I get done. The more successful I am with my goals.
And the happier I feel at the end of my workday.(And this is also what the people I help report back to me.)
So, planning really is well worth your time!
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/17
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Welcome to this 5th episode in a small series I’ve called: “Professional Development - Job Hunting and Your CV”.
In the previous episode, I talked about how to use all the work you have to do anyway for your annual performance review to fuel your own work on your career development. You can find that episode at www.barbarakandersen.com/15.
In today’s episode, I want you to take a longer view of your career. You could say that we’re going to have a look into the crystal ball! Because I want to invite you to think about what your CV will look like in 10 years.
Where will you be? And what do you want your CV to look like? What do you want it to reflect about your professional life?
Are you a planner? Or do you prefer to wait and see what happens?
I’ve noticed three different ways of approaching career planning:
There is no plan - one day simply follows the other. You show up, do your job and hope for the best. Actually – there is no plan here.You have a clear plan and vision for your career. First this kind of job, then that kind of job. Always preparing for the next stepYou have dreams, but there’s no clear plan. Apart from your education, you probably haven’t taken major action to drive yourself toward a clearly defined goal. It feels more like you have navigated the flow and the possibilities that showed up.In my experience, the last group is the biggest one.
And this was also my path for many years. I always felt lucky when I got a job. Then I worked hard to do that job as well as I could. I realised what I liked and didn’t like about it. But I was very much flowing with the opportunities that showed up. I can see now that I was more reactive than proactive in my career back then.
Maybe you recognize this scenario?
You got the job. You learned to do the job. Learned from the job. Settled in. Got comfortable with the job. Then, slowly you got a bit tired of the job or the content of the job - or the general setting you were in.Slowly you started to think about “what else?” What could be interesting? Where could I go?
So, maybe you don’t really have a plan.
But the truth is that if you dare ask yourself, there are things that you’d like to see happen for yourself.Maybe you’ve had that question in a job interview: “Where do you see yourself five years from now?” Was it easy to respond to? And have you acted on it?
Many of us hope that opportunities will show up. However, experience has shown me that hope is not really a strategy.
I don’t believe we can decide or predict exactly what will happen five or 10 years from now. But we can envision what we’d like our professional life to look like. And we can take action to move in that direction.
Is there a 4th way?
So, your CV is essentially a shorthand version of your career. Is that something that is happening to you? Or are you setting the direction?Are you proactive or reactive?
If you want to become more proactive, that doesn’t mean that you have to – or should - plan everything in great detail. Not at all, actually. But the first essential step is to become aware of what direction you want to go in.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/16. -
Welcome to today’s episode which is related to something many of us dread - the annual performance review process!
Oh, the hours I spent on this in my UN career. And, to be frank, not always convinced that the value of the process compared to the time I and everybody else invested in it. So, although I very much agreed with the theory of the performance review (I was working in Human Resources after all!) – I must say that I didn’t personally look forward to the process. Having to evaluate myself. Try to write about how brilliant I thought I’d done through the year. Not exactly my cup of tea!
So, I’m happy to let you know that today’s episode is not really about the performance review process itself. It’s about seeing the performance review process from a different angle.
You can find the show notes for today’s episode at www.Barbarakandersen.com/15.
So, you should no longer see the performance review as a stressor in the middle of other urgent work.
Instead, let the performance review serve as your annual prompt to stay on track with your career development and ensure that you take time to take action and take charge of your career. I actually already touched on this in episode 9, the one called “Why You Always Want to Have an Updated CV!” (You can find that episode at www.barbarakandersen.com/9 ).
3 ways to get much more out of the performance review process!
#1 Use it as an Opportunity to Go into “Career Mode”
You’re busy. It feels like there’s never really enough time to think about your career, your professional development, networking and looking for jobs.
But for the performance review process you’re required to sit down and update your goals. You have to review your results and your competencies. You’re forced to think and write about what you’ve done well during the year. And you should welcome that as an opportunity.
You may not necessarily expect big results from the performance review itself, but I say it’s actually good that you’re forced to do this because you need to think about it for you.
So, take this opportunity to go into “career mode” and line out:
Everything you’ve achieved and all you’ve learned during the yearThe results you’ve createdThe competencies you’ve displayed or developedThe skills you’ve displayed or developedWhile you’re in this “career mode”, think also about:
What’s the next thing you’d like to do? What would you like your next job to be? What are the skills you’d like to develop further?Would you like to diversify?Would you like to go to the next level in terms of expertise – or in terms of authority and responsibility?Would you like to develop by moving to the field? Or to HQ or a regional setting?Is there a particular part of the world you’re eager to experience? Would you be interested to see what difference your experience could make in an NGO setting?Or would you like to go home and use your expertise in a government context?You should of course talk with your supervisor about as many of these things as you feel comfortable with. Seek his or her support for your development and your next steps. If you don’t think this is feasible, think about how else this can be done? Who else will/can support you?
Think about what you will do in order to move in that direction.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/15.
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Hello, and welcome to this 14th episode in the Happy UN Career Podcast - about 3 reasons why you want to set goals for the next year (and the 8 steps you need)!
So, today’s episode is about looking forward in the next year – even if that seems difficult in the midst of the pandemic. But most of us are geared in such a way that we function best with something to look forward to.
And if the outside world is not providing that – you should look to create it yourself.
I believe that if we want change in our lives, we really have to find a way to look for – and create – that change ourselves. We can’t change the pandemic. We can’t change the restrictions that may apply in the place we live. But we can start making plans for the things we can make happen. That we want to make happen.
So today I’ll share the 3 reasons why you should create goals for yourself for the next year – and the 8 steps to do that.
So, this episode is really about goalsetting – laying out a direction for the year. For your year.
Reason #1 for creating goals for the year: Good goals let you work on your plan
Because if you don’t have your own goals – and plans to reach your goals – you’ll end up spending your time working on other people’s goals. Other people’s plans.
Goalsetting is really about setting intentions. Figuring out where you want to go – so you can plan a way to get there. If you don’t know where you’re going how will you know how to get there? And how will you know when you have arrived?
If you just follow the flow, one day after the other, one email after the other, you’ll be fine for a while probably. But one day you might look up from your desk and realise that the world changed around you. People left the team. Your supervisor is new. And now the scope of your work is being changed.
It seems like everybody else had a plan and moved on. And maybe you were so busy responding to emails, meeting deadlines, and attending meetings that you didn’t get around to figuring out your own plan. Let alone taking action on it.
This was my life at one point. I was so busy doing the day-to-day stuff that I never really had the energy – or thought I had the time - to step back and deliberately make a plan for what I wanted to happen. How I wanted to develop. What I wanted to try.Maybe I was also a bit afraid? Because I knew what I had. I was comfortable with feeling really good at my job. If I left for something else, then maybe I wouldn’t feel as confident. At least for a while. And what if I wouldn’t perform as well in the new place? In the new role?
And possibly there was also a level of procrastination involved. When you’re already very busy, it takes extra energy to pull yourself away from that. So, you just get on with your job and respond to the next email and tick off the next thing on the to-do list and thus leave the goal setting and the bold decisions for – tomorrow.
Reason #2 for creating goals for the year: Good goals put you in control
When you set goals (and make a plan), you have conscious thoughts about what you want. What you want your life and work to look like. And feel like. You’re taking responsibility. You’re being proactive instead of being reactive.
When we’re spending most of our time and resources reacting to all the things others want from us, demand from us – that can easily make us feel despondent. It can make us feel like we haven’t much control over our lives. And that is not good for us in the long run.Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/14.
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Hello, and welcome to today’s episode which is about using the end of the year to take stock and celebrate everything you did and all that you accomplished in 2020.
Remember the Career Car analogy that I talked about in Episode 3?
Well, imagine that you’ve been driving for a while now.
The traffic has been dense, and you’ve often had to find new routes – trying to get around big holes in the road or avoiding an accident you could see further up the road. But you’ve still been driving as fast as you could because it often felt like you were a bit late. And there was still a long way to go.
Now you’re feeling tired and in need of a break. You might be a bit concerned about the route you’re taking. Is it still the best one? Are you going to be able to arrive at your destination in time? And are you sure still sure about your destination?
So, today I want to give you an opportunity to pull over, get out of your car and have a good, long stretch. Lower your shoulders that have been sitting up around your ears for the last while. Turn and look around and behind you – and get out the map and really notice how far you’ve travelled. And faster than you thought after all? Maybe you visited places on the way that you had not at all anticipated from the beginning. What did you learn and experience on the way? With whom? How did you cope with the challenges and problems? Etc.
2020 has been a hard year. A truly challenging year for everyone, and it’s easy to just want it over and done with. And then forget it all. But that would be a big shame, I think. After all, many things happened that I want to remember. And be mindful of.
And I’m sure that’s the case for you too. A lot happened in 2020, and you coped with a lot– and my guess is that some of those things you probably already forgot about.
From a work perspective, working in the UN, I’m sure you still delivered a lot – under different and more challenging circumstances due to the pandemic.
So, this episode is about taking time to remember, acknowledge and celebrate everything you did. All the things that went well after all. All the things that turned out differently, but in the end were ok. The battles you fought. The challenges you overcame.
The work you still managed to do while homeschooling your children from the dining table. The training you pulled off, but now online instead of physically. The support to colleagues and supervisees that you had to do via Zoom instead of being able to chat informally in the office. Missing social and professional interaction with your colleagues. And so on. You will of course have many more examples yourself.
Privately, you probably had to cope with many challenging situations as well. Working from home – maybe in settings that were not really conducive to focused work. Maybe sharing your internet connection with the rest of the family having to negotiate whose Zoom meeting would take priority. Suddenly being responsible for your children’s schooling from home (and I’m sure many of us have gained a lot of respect for the teaching profession!). Missing parties and celebrations. Not being able to be with your family and friends, etc. It’s been hard, but you are still here.
So, I have a small exercise that I always enjoy at this time of the year
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/13 -
Welcome to this 12th episode of the Happy UN Career Podcast!
I’m so pleased to see that the podcast has been well received by you who are listening to this. Because without you – there really wouldn’t be much point in doing this.
It’s very interesting to see the metrics for the different episodes and I can see already that some episodes are particularly popular. One of them is episode 10, the one I called “Take a Chance” where I interviewed my former colleague from UNDP, Mike Dodd, about how he’d taken chances in his career. So, if you haven’t heard that one yet, I’d encourage you to go back and give it a listen at www.barbarakandersen.com/10 .
Your career belongs to you
And inspired by my talk with Mike, I wanted to talk a bit more in today’s episode about how important it is to acknowledge that your career really and truly is a personal and individual thing. Your career belongs to you.
And now you might say: well, that’s obvious, isn’t it? We’re all individuals with distinct personalities, and competencies and skills. How can a career not be personal and individual?However, so often when I talk to people (and this goes for both clients and friends and old colleagues) it strikes me that we constantly compare ourselves to others and how they’re doing. What they’re doing. Especially those that are ahead of us in terms of being at a higher level in the hierarchy or are working in areas that are somehow deemed more important or influential.
It’s easy to get a feeling that you should be more like those people, find out what they do and maybe try to do the same thing. Progress in the same way as them. And that feeds the sense that so many of us are struggling with already.
That we’re not quite measuring up.
That we’re not making the choices we ought to make. Or succeeding in the way others expect of us.
So, I have a question for you today:
Do you feel that your career has to live up to other people’s expectations?
What I have noticed is that we attach quite a bit of value to what other people think of us, and our career. How they evaluate how we’re doing in our career. What we’re doing. Or who we report to. Or what our title is. And so on.
I wonder if you recognize this?
We’re influenced by societal norms. But maybe even more by organizational norms. That makes us look at what others do. Thinking, maybe that’s what I should do?
But we’re also influenced by others’ opinions and expectations of us in a very direct way. We’re influenced by what our parents taught us, by what our spouse or partner wants for us, by what our supervisor expects, what our friends suggest, and so on.
This goes from: what next job you should pursue to how to do networking or promote your work – or yourself!
And all these expectations and suggestions come from a good place. All these people care for you and want what they think is best for you. For you to fit in. Be successful. And be safe. Based on their own experiences and how they see the world.
But what works for one person does not necessarily work for the other.
And yet, I find that a lot of advice around career is not particularly centered on supporting that sense of the individuality. Or finding out what inspires and motivates you in your work life.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/12 -
Hello, and welcome to this 3rd episode in a small series I’ve called: “Professional Development - Job Hunting and CVs”.
In the previous episode in this series (the episode called “Why You Always Want to Have an Updated CV!”) I talked about 5 problems you solve by always having a good, updated CV. You can find that episode at www.barbarakandersen.com/9.
As I also promised in that episode, I’m back today to talk about some important guiding principles for writing a CV you’ll feel proud of – and that you’ll be happy to share with your network and send with your applications.
So, that’s the topic for today. I’ve identified 5 important CV writing principles that nearly always come into play when I discuss CV’s with my clients. I’ll share those with you of course – plus, I’ll share a tip to make CV writing interesting and rewarding!
So, who likes CV writing, anyway?
The thing is – as I know I have said before - I have yet to meet a person who told me that they enjoyed working on their CV!I have met a few people who treated CV writing as just another task on their to-do list that they would just sit down and work their way through. According to plan.
But then I’ve met a lot of people who really don’t enjoy it. In the same way they really don’t enjoy the annual performance review process.
Maybe you recognize this?
Of course, you want to be recognized for your efforts, but you find the whole CV writing process somewhat tedious. And you feel uncomfortable having to point out your own talents and achievements.
I definitely felt like that myself! I had a love-hate relationship with CV writing for many years.
I wanted, of course, to have a crisp and professional-looking CV clearly outlining my experience and competencies. And which would hopefully give me an edge in the recruitment process.
And I certainly enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment and professionalism when I finally got it done and felt I’d done an OK job of it.
But frankly, I felt very self-conscious about the whole process of deciding what to keep in and what to leave out. Suddenly everything seemed important. But was it?
At the same time, I felt very awkward about having to promote myself. And I felt uncomfortable with the tactics I felt were going on with the CV writing and the whole application process.
The whole thing triggered feelings of frustration and discomfort – and, honestly, a lot of procrastination.
The problem, I found out later, is that this way of thinking about CV writing is very much focused on me, myself, and my feelings. And all those feelings make it difficult to sort the essential from the non-essential in the CV.
A good first tip is to get yourself – or at least your feelings - out of the CV, so to speak. And that’s where it’s often very helpful to get support from someone else.
So, to help you get started, I'm happy to share 5 important CV writing principles.
5 Key Principles for Writing or Rewriting Your CV
Principle #1: Make it short(er)
There are no laws or regulations on CV’s. But there’s good advice. Which is based on common sense really. I may tell you that your 8-page CV is far too long. But then you may tell me that this is the CV you used when you got hired for your current position. So, an 8-page CV does not necessarily mean that you won’t get shortlisted. But it does not really signal competence in filtering the essential from the non-essential. Or strong written communication skills.
Read the full show notes at http://www.barbarakandersen.com/11 -
I’m thrilled to be able to share an interview with my good friend and former colleague, Mike Dodd. Mike is from the UK and he started with UNDP in 1991 and retired at the end of 2015.
I asked Mike to come on the podcast because I think he’s had a very interesting career path, but maybe more importantly – because of the way he has approached work and career and the way he’s taken decisions in his own career over the years.
Mike began as a UN Volunteer in Zimbabwe, moved to supporting the global rollout of UNDP’s ERP IT infrastructure as a Regional Information Manager and he finished as a headquarters-based Learning Specialist at the P4 level. Mike’s worked on three continents and his work with UNDP spanned both Country Offices, Regional Centres and Headquarters.
In the interview, Mike shares his own career journey and how the chances he's taken along the way have enriched not only his career but also his personal life.I always get inspired when I talk to Mike and I think that in his reflections on his career there is something to take away for all of us. So, I hope you’ll enjoy this interview as much as I did.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/10 -
Hello, and welcome to this 2nd episode in a small series I’ve called: “Professional Development - Job Hunting and CVs”.
In the previous episode (the one I called “Keep Your UN Career Open - Look for Jobs”) I talked about the importance of staying open to new opportunities. Regularly looking at vacancies and applying. You can find that episode at www.barbarakandersen.com/8.
In that last episode, I also promised that I would share some guiding principles on CV writing, but while preparing for that I realised that there’s an important point I wanted to bring up first.
And that is:
Why you should always have an updated CV.
So, here’s a short episode on that.The thing is, I’ve yet to meet a person who told me they enjoy CV writing. And I know that I certainly dreaded that task myself for many years.
Maybe you recognize this situation:
You have been in the same job for the last good many years. You made an effort when you dusted off your CV for the application for the job, you’re currently in. And then you were relieved to leave the CV at the bottom of your drawer once you had signed your contract. And it has stayed at the bottom of your drawer ever since.
There was that situation a few years ago where somebody mentioned an interesting job you thought you ought to apply for. You were very busy at work at the time, but you decided you’d still give it a shot.
But then you had to work late on the day of the application deadline. And when you thought about the updates you needed to do to your CV, you entirely lost steam – and confidence. And you decided that you just didn’t have the time (and honestly, you couldn’t muster the energy) to make the application. And so, you didn’t.
Or maybe you recognize this situation:
You applied for a job recently because it sounded really interesting and was a good match for your skills. And, lately, you’ve been feeling that it’s about time to move on.
But you were so busy with work and so exhausted when you came home in the evening that it was hard to really put in the necessary time to update your old CV.
So, in the end, all you had time and energy for was to add a paragraph about your current job experience and then throw in some keywords from the vacancy announcement. Hoping that it would still catch the eyes of the people doing the long listing.
As you finished your CV with tired eyes shortly before midnight, you suddenly remembered that you learned in a seminar once that it’s important to write something about your key achievements in your CV…
But you were so tired that you just knew that either the CV was going to be sent as it was – or you were not going to make it.
So, you sent it off as it was. Hoping that the recruiters would still be able to spot what a hardworking and competent professional you are – just right for the job. But not actually feeling super professional in terms of the application you’d just made.
What’s the problem?
Well, the problem is that when your CV is not updated, that means you’re not ready to apply when an opportunity suddenly appears. And most times these opportunities are unexpected. It’s rare that we see great job opportunities appear on the horizon with plenty of time for us to get ourselves into gear and take half a day off (or more) to prepare.
And the thing is, that when you can’t or don’t want to share your CV at short notice, that can unfortunately also leave you feeling a bit unprofessional.
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/9 -
Hello, and welcome to this 1st episode in a small series I’ve called: “Professional Development - Job Hunting and CVs”!
In the last episode, I suggested that you should prioritise time to work on your CV and keep yourself updated about vacancies.
Even if you’re perfectly happy in your current job!
So, in this and the next episode, I’ll delve into the CV and job-hunting sphere.
When I speak to my clients, they often tell me that they think they ought to look for another job. But they just don’t feel they have the time because they’re so busy with their current job. And they’re exhausted at the end of the day, so they don’t get it done.
Or, occasionally they see – or are pointed towards - a relevant job vacancy, but they find it hard to find the time to apply because their CV has not been updated in a long time and they know they really need to put some work in, in order to present themselves well.
And they often tell me this with a slightly embarrassed smile. If you recognize this there’s nothing to be embarrassed about it. As you can hear it happens to many people and it’s totally natural.
And I’ve certainly had that experience myself. That when I was in the most need of a change – I had the least energy to pursue it.
We are so engrossed in what we’re doing in our daily life – performing in our current job – that CV writing and looking for other jobs seem to end up at the bottom of the to-do list.
But then I discovered that our energy levels and what we think we have time for are a strangely fluid thing! I also spoke about this in episode 7 (the one I called “Are You Ready to Take Action in Your UN Career?” and which you can find on www.barbarakandersen.com/7).
You can make time for applications and CV writing. If you decide it’s important.
And maybe more importantly, if you decide that it’s something that you want to do because it will develop your career and professional life and make it more interesting.
I have identified 5 reasons why you should be open for opportunities and scanning the job pages – even if you’re perfectly happy in your current job...
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/8. -
Hello, and welcome to this episode which is all about taking action!
In all the episodes until now, I’ve offered you ways to reflect on what works and what doesn’t work in your career and work life.
And then I’ve suggested that you look for and decide on action points. Big or small.
So today, I’ll share some tips that will help you do exactly that: take action.
Because it might seem like there’s so much you could do or should do?
But how do you prioritise? How do you find the time and resources for taking action?
You’re busy. I know! And I totally understand if it feels like you have enough on your plate. How can you possibly find time to do something new or different?
But the strange thing is that when something is important enough, you find time for it.
Or if it’s attractive enough. Or maybe just small and easy enough.
Remember when you’ve been in love? How suddenly you always had time and energy to see or call your loved one. Even if you were crazy busy with work. But, Barbara, you might say - that was hormones doing their work! Or that you were younger, maybe?
But still, somehow you managed to do more with the same amount of time. Because your priorities changed! And you felt a surge of energy, sure. But you can create that situation in other ways!
If you think I’m a bit far out here, I have another example that I think anybody who’s a parent will be able to identify with:
You get a call from the kindergarten. Your son had an accident on the playground. He’s bleeding from a small wound on his forehead and they think it’s best if he’s taken to the emergency room. Just to be on the safe side.
Until this moment you were totally absorbed with your work duties for the day and your long to-do list. Now, suddenly you have no problem changing your priorities. There’s no question that you have to go to the emergency room. And you quickly prioritise what tasks can be dealt with by phone in the car, what can be handed over to a colleague – and what can simply be postponed or written off.
What happened? All your work tasks are the same. But your thinking around the tasks and your prioritisation changed.
You can make this happen yourself without accidents on the playground.
So, if you know that there are things you want to take action on for your own UN Career Project, I’ll give you 3 simple and concrete steps to follow...
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/7. -
Hello, and welcome to this episode which I’ve called “Pump your Wheel of Life and help your UN career!" (Alluding to my favourite career car analogy...)
This episode belongs to the “What drives you and what drains you?” series and today we’re going to talk about drivers on a more existential level, you could say because we’re going to look at your whole life. Not just the work part.
Because, often when we think about work and career, we think in a quite linear and traditional way.
We think in interests (hopefully!) and ambitions, but also very much in terms of promotions, prestige, expectations and what not only we, but also our surroundings, think would be the appropriate or logical next step.
But there are many other aspects to consider when making decisions around work.
Because your job has to hang together with the rest of your life. And your family. One example is that a career in the UN often means living away from your family and your country and the culture you grew up in.
Or it means that your partner and children travel with you and leaves your home country and extended family behind. This can be a wonderful and rich experience that helps you all grow and come closer to each other. But it also presents its own challenges.
What does that mean for how you see your career? And what does it mean for your partner’s career and professional development?
The reflection exercise I’m offering today is called “The Wheel of Life” and it offers a possibility of a 360-degree view of your work and private life combined.
And it also offers insights into their influence and effect on each other. That can be both positive and negative. But the great thing is that once you see it, you can do something about it.
Often, small changes can go a long way to create a new balance or positive effect. And then again, sometimes we realise that a bigger change, a bigger decision, is needed.
Often, we had an idea already that this bigger decision was waiting to be made. But it’s easier to make those decisions when we see the realities clearly in front of our eyes and that helps us take action and move on.So, the wheel of life is an interesting reflection exercise that will often offer an additional angle on what’s important for you to consider when you make work and life decisions.
And this is how you do it...
Read the full show notes at www.barbarakandersen.com/6. - Laat meer zien
