Measuring Success during a Recession – Part I

Increased sales – Promotions – Raises – Product launches – Increased market share – Profit growth – Team development…. These are a few of the traditional metrics used by professional across the globe to measure success. Over the past 20 months, however, the metric of success for businesses and employees alike has been transformed into a single word – Survival! Moreover, if you are one of the 6.9m people that have been affected by a layoff, your new measure of success is simple – Securing employment! However, the time has come for professionals to reassess their measure of success in order to realign their activities with their long term goals.

During the past 2 years, the recession has forced many people to focus more on “doing” and less on “planning”. A number of professionals have been asked to work longer hours with fewer resources, while their job has become a bit mundane and highly tactical. A recent survey conducted by CareerBuilder and RHI indicated that more than 50% of survey respondents plan to make a career change or return to school when the economy recovers (Employment Dynamics and Growth Expectations (EDGE) Report, 2009 http://tiny.cc/jiPgn). Additionally, an August 2009 Gallup poll indicated that the number of Americans concerned about being laid off, their wages being reduced and their hours being cut back have doubled year over year to 31%, 32% and 27% respectively. Couple this with an unemployment rate that just reached 9.7%, and it is no wonder that individuals have lost site of the meaning of success.

I would argue that the best metric of success, regardless of your employment status, position or the economic climate, is “intelligent activity”.

I define intelligent activity as “actions that directly contribute to the accomplishment of your goals”. In other words, if you are currently working, ask yourself whether or not your time is being spent doing the things that allow you to leverage your strengths. Is your current position moving you closer to reaching your career goals? For those of you in transition, it is time to develop a Career Management Plan™ that will guide you in your activities. As you build this plan, ask yourself whether or not you are attending the right events and connecting with the people that will lead you to your next position?

Of course this begs the question – what are your long term career goals and what does your ideal position look like? Only after defining these guidelines can you use them as a benchmark to measure your success.

Career Management Plan™ for Job Seekers

For those in transition, it is imperative that you sit down with pencil and paper (or keyboard and screen) and dedicate time to laying out your plan. Treat your job search as an exercise in project management. The first step is to define your ideal position. Consider everything from commute and salary to management responsibilities and the use of ERP systems. Simply defining your ideal job as “Sales” or “CFO” or “HR Director” is not enough. Describe the type of sales, finance and human resources activities that you enjoy. Are you a hunter (new client acquisition) or a farmer (account management)? Do you thrive as an individual contributor or as a manager? Are your talents best utilized by managing the day-to-day operations, or are you better suited to handle the more strategic issues such as raising capital, investor relations and treasury management? Do your strengths lie in recruiting and succession planning, or are you more effective developing compliance guidelines? As you continue to build this inventory of ideal responsibilities, consider using the “Get To/Have To” exercise – compile a list of the activities that you “get to do” on the job and those that you “have to do”. This, too, will aide you as you define your next position.

Continued in next column >