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Is career agility the new intelligence?

Rachel Brushfield looks at what career agility is and how to acquire this competency.  Rachel is a career coach specialising in portfolio careers and Founder of Energise.

Introduction

In a fast changing and uncertain world of work and legal profession, career agility is a ‘must learn’ competency.

This guest blog for Legal Women explores career agility, portfolio careers and shares some practical tips and self-reflective questions.

Impact of Covid-19 on the world of work

•  Multi-faceted impact  
•  Forced change
•  Severe disruption
•  Digitisation
•  Innovation catalyst
•  Accelerated change
•  Need for agility
•  Fast decision making
•  Less hierarchy
•  More human  

“When the winds of change blow, some people build windmills, others walls.”

Chinese Proverb.

What does career agility mean?

•  “The ability to move quickly and easily”
•  “The ability to think and understand quickly”
•  “The skills of pivoting quickly”

Source = Dictionary definition.

What does career agility mean at a practical level?

•  Technological agility?
•  Political agility?
•  Skills and knowledge agility?
•  Career pivot agility -  in response to trends?
•  Career choice: Portfolio career = agile career
•  Thinking agility as a competitive edge?
•  Career plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’?
•  A type of intelligence?
•  Something else!

What’s your view?

5 career adaptability competencies

Interesting research by UKCES/The University of Warwick in August 2011 about career adaptability, defined 5 competencies, the ‘5 Cs’: bimrose_ca_main.pdf (warwick.ac.uk)

The 5 Cs of career agility

•  Control: being proactive, decisive, and taking responsibility for your career.
•  Curiosity: broadening your options by seeking options, possibilities and knowledge
•  Commitment: passionately pursuing and taking action to move to the career direction of your choosing.
•  Confidence: belief in yourself and that you can achieve your goals.
•  Concern: having a positive and philosophical attitude to mistakes or rejection.

How can you develop career agility?

These are career agility behaviours:

•  Consistently respond to not resist change.
•  Rotate your career from your interests + drive.
•  Create opportunities around your skill sets + motivations.
•  Be adaptable and flexible with change.
•  Possess/cultivate curiosity + resilience.
•  Take responsibility for your own career.
•  Follow/leverage trends – stay ahead.
•  Seek formal and informal advice/mentors.

Why a portfolio career is useful for developing career agility

Every portfolio career is unique. They are a changing mix of part-time employment, self-employment, volunteering, study, travel and rest.

Non-executive directorships and trustee roles are a common component for lawyers to begin to develop theirs.  

A portfolio career helps you develop career agility because:

•  It is always changing.
•  You’re always learning
•  New challenges keep you on your toes
•  It ensures you are agile

What do lawyers + experts say about career agility and portfolio careers?

These are extracts from ‘The New Polymaths’, an Energise white paper about career agility.

“We need to realise that we can’t be experts in everything because it updates so quickly.”

Coral Hill, Editor in Chief, Legal Women magazine.

“Career agility means giving yourself more than one career option – a career plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’.“

Elizabeth Rimmer, CEO, LawCare.

“Career agility must mean flexibility in terms of outlook and expectations, and also attitude.”

Stefan Stern.

“A portfolio career ensures that you never stop learning.”
Sally Penni

“Career agility is ‘the proactive investment in continuous learning.”

Maggi Evans, author, conference speaker, consultant and psychologist.

“You need to be able to think ‘out of the box,’ be strategic, commercial and find solutions to problems.”
Nicola Raj.  

“Career agility is about taking action when necessary or appropriate to craft one’s own future direction, willing to take calculated risks and not being limited by career choices taken previously; taking a positive stance and constructing a future forward path when faced with unforeseen circumstances.”

Evelyn Davies-Jones.

“Career agility means adaptability to me. I’ve had to be adaptable with nearly everything I do since my career began. It means choice.”

Jayne Nicol.

“I relish my portfolio career – it is stimulating, I am never bored, and I know that steps I take to evolve it today will lead to new exciting possibilities tomorrow for me, and to continue to make a difference.”

Christina Blacklaws.

Summary

So is career agility the new intelligence?

• Intelligence = “The ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.”
• Agility = “the ability to move quickly and easily”, “the ability to think and understand quickly”, “the skills of pivoting quickly.”

What is your view?

Key points

• Increased agility is essential in the digital age with change accelerating.
•  Agility IS a type of intelligence – faster thinking.
•  It is also a mindset.
•  Agility can be developed, it is not always innate.
•  5 career agility competencies:   Control, Curiosity, Commitment, Confidence, Concern.
•  Setting CPD goals ensures career agility is developed.
•  A portfolio career is a smart choice for the digital/knowledge age ensuring career agility.

A portfolio career:

•  Prevents complacency, creates growth
•  Broadens your career horizons.  
•  Career agility behaviours are developed naturally.
•  Enables you to pivot in different/new directions.
•  Forces you to do marketing and networking.
•  Gives you more options/reduces career risk.  
•  Makes you look at changing trends.
•  Career resilience builds – keeps you on your toes!
•  A portfolio career is like taking out ‘career insurance.’
•  A portfolio career helps you to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

4 tips to build your career agility.

1. Choose 1 of the 5 career adaptability competencies and block out 20 minutes each week to develop this career adaptability ‘muscle’.

2. Keep a learning and mistakes diary each week, and review it once a month, highlighting the key development areas.

3. Seek the advice of respected recruitment agents to gain their perspective on what employers are looking for.

4. Draw a line graph for your career showing the ups and downs and reflect on insights at these times to inform your future choices.  

7 Self-reflective questions

1. How could I develop a growth mindset?

2. Who in my network could I proactively seek feedback from to develop my self-awareness?

3. What 5 emerging specialisms in my area of law would enable me to build my career agility?

4. When, where and how can I develop my career agility?

5. How would I score myself against the 5 agility competencies?

6. What is the best way for me to explore if a portfolio career is for me?

7. What CPD would help me to develop my career agility?

More

To receive your free copy of the Energise white paper about career agility: ‘The New Polymaths’, please e mail us:

https://www.energiselegal.com/contact-us/

Want to feel more comfortable marketing yourself?

Energise Seminar: “Marketing me: Successful proactive marketing.”

6-8pm Thursday 9 September 2021 on Zoom. Early bird ticket sales end 31 August 2021. Book now.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/marketing-me-successful-proactive-marketing-tickets-165540274417

LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/energiseliberateyourtalent/

Web site: EnergiseLegal https://www.energiselegal.com/

Web site: LLClub - Inspiring Portfolio Careers for Women Lawyers: https://www.llclub.org/

Tel: + 44 (0) 7973 911137

July 2021