Slide 1

Mind the Gaps –Professional Skill Development During Times of Illness

Overview statement:

Chronic Illness allows one to see life in small slices, just like the steps used in good project management.

Elements of a project are broken down to cover every aspect, leaving nothing unaccounted for or taken

for granted. Both the expected (planned) and the unexpected (back-ups or “B” plans) are put into the

planning of final outcomes.

By approaching career planning and job development the same way, those with chronic illnesses or

disabilities bring options and solutions to their employer, thus showing they can self –manage both their

careers and lives.

In these days of cost-cutting, employers expect employees to take on their own job development, or

take the next step in training to enhance a career at the employee’s expense. Managing a stable

life/work balance during such economic times as these, allows the chronic illness to not stand out. The

employer looks for individuals who are faced by life problems, and overcome those hardships by finding

solutions to the problems on their own. And in the end, it boils down to the creative solution which

gives the best return for the investment for everyone involved - both employer and employee.

Slide 2

Who Am I? What Do I know?

• 1980 BA in Soc-Anthropology/Clinical Psychology from Western Illinois University (after 14 majors/minors)

• 1977-2001 Volunteered in various communities with low income and unemployed individuals to help find employment and develop job skills (Worked about 42 different jobs.)

• 2002 Pfizer downsized office and I began caring for family with significant long & short term illnesses

• 2005 Graduated from SNL with MA while caring for family

• 2005-2008 Focused on skill development planning to help friends and others with illnesses – got others jobs.

• 2008- Present Part-time Job Coach / Developer for UCP in Chicago

Career planning did not work for me in college – At WIU I managed to have 14 majors and minors my first three years. It was not that I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I just could not connect my skills to a career area that was a real major or in the want ads when I began looking for a job. However, I found I had a skill or a knack – I could help others find their way to a job. Over my years of employment, I took several project and knowledge management seminars, many skill development classes, and had to start facing the fact that my jobs were not heading toward anything but more jobs – and not a career at all. I came to discover that the funny little pictures and words drawings I had learned to do in a college art class was called mind mapping. I began mapping my gaps in my own life and employment, and found when combined with parts of project management skills as well as my personal mission statement, it allowed me to better guide my “career/life” and see gaps like a project. The funny thing that happened on my way to a new career after I was downsized was everyone around me got sick. With my map, I discovered that my family’s sickness or the economy could not stop my career plans or goals. In fact, mapping often me helps to find jobs or opportunities that I would not have thought of otherwise, like my current job. My actual career goal was to work in HR recruitment, but I had no actual education or paid experience – I had only volunteered. So, I turned to my map and took a closer look at where I could move from a volunteer to an employee. Now, I help map around illnesses and other road blocks to encourage others to map their ways to a long-term career.

Slide 3

The Job Market

Three Trends I have noticed:

• Simply doing your job well and “knowing the business” is

no longer enough to get ahead.

• Career development is no longer part of the corporate

policy while a job seeker’s knowledge of their long term

career plans is expected at the interview.

• Manage your own job training expectations – There is a

significant gap between what is expected to be known

for your job at time of hire and corporate training return

on investment (RIO) over the first 90 days.

The previous tradition of a job for life is long gone. Gone, too, are corporations that offer a simple

internal organization pathway from a job to a long-term career within their company. In fact, jobs are

increasingly more fluid, mixing work time with personal time, while blurring defined roles or job

responsibilities. This move away from statically-defined job titles being universally recognizable across

organizations or industries makes job descriptions or job title advertisements relatively useless.

Just because the company puts an ad on CareerBuilder with a title and description, does not mean they

want someone only with those skills. It is instead a starting point. As the blurring of work/life occurs and

technology allows employees to do more in less time, employers are looking to personal skill

development to reach past job training and into whole life development. And during the interview they

ask, “What are your long-term career plans?” Excitement should not just be for their job.

The return on investment must be seen in the first 90 days for the employee salary to be justified. No

longer can a company bring an employee along to gain all the skills needed as training costs cut into

profits. Additionally, training someone doesn’t prove to be a good long-term investment for a company

when the average employee stays 18 months or less. Employees who hit the ground running with all the

skills for the project at hand over the next 2 years are worth the wait from a hiring manager’s

standpoint.

Slide 4

The New Unspoken Rules

• Higher education no longer guarantees a job, higher pay, or automatic promotions. (Don’t count

on employer to foot the education bill either.)

• Taking a yearly training course will not meet most employer expectations for performance of job skill or count as career development. (If it does- run.)

• The people not searching for a job or a career? Perpetual learners and self-reliant adapters, who can prove they are capable in dealing with life, health, and economic surprises by developing new skills in “gap periods”..

What do employers want? The consensus of employers I talk to want people who are self-directed in skill growth, not depending on an employer training budgets to get job/career skills, and know how to maintain good life-work balance. What makes them nervous? Employees who are too dependent upon them to be everything for them long-term. Why? Because today, corporations worry and honestly do not know if their organization will last over the long haul in current global, economic climates. Many of the employers agree to 6 months, a year at the most, for hiring a new employee - with even the most important jobs being “conditional” or “temporary”. Gone is the security of “forever” employment or a climb the ladder from within as it is cheaper to have someone come already trained to fill a position. And what about the clients I place quickly and get calls for? They are the ones who know the next four or five skills and where they plan to gain it for their career growth. They are the ones who tell me, “I need this skill to be developed” or “this is where I need to grow”. They are self- aware and have a plan. They see illness as an opportunity to gain knowledge of some kind instead as a holding pattern.

Slide 5

Understanding the Gaps

A Job is….

• Doing

• Now

• Performance based

• Growing skills or learn elements of work

• Titles may differ, work remains the same

• Jobs are added or lost

A Career is….

• Become

• Over Time

• Recognized Expertise

• Teaching skills or elements to others

• Clear identity of skill field or industry

• Careers change, but never are lost

I start off with my clients with this simple question. What is the difference between a job and a career? Some think it is a joke and wait for a punch line. Others stare blankly. Then I say, “How many jobs were lost in the news today? How many careers were lost today?” Job lost yes. Career lost? Who has ever picked up a paper and read, 100K careers were lost today? Most people forget that jobs come and go, but career fields are established, long recognized fields or roles that involve a personal commitment to expertise. Jobs are created by businesses to do a function or hold a role. Jobs come and go. We change jobs or roles…but the expertise of a skill often enhances a career area or field. Skills are transferred across industries as are careers. My skilled bookkeeper client (who learned his skill while volunteering at his neighborhood child care center while battling cancer), can work in the Ford plant or at my local hospital. And yes, that bookkeeper can become a CPA accountant on his own time, during his illness gaps.

Slide 6

Know the Difference

Skills

• Focused on improving or growing expertise in some area (Life or Professionally)

• Done slowly over time in no set order

• Cross-over application

Career

• Industry or profession as success point

• Clear path of known steps or assessments over time

• Set or predictable time limit to achieve

Very often career planning is something that comes with picking a job and skills are treated as a side dish or just part of the deal when the employer hires us. Skills are universally found in every aspect of our lives, as is leadership. You got up today, put on clothes, etc? You did so without it being your career, but using the same skills you use in your job. Most of us take this simple fact for granted until we face an illness. Somehow, we forget or worse, make our illness our career plan. Illness actually expands our skills, not limits them. Illness is really what our career balances upon like a see-saw.

Slide 7

Why Map?

• Managing your Career and your skill development is a long term investment of both your time and your money – don’t be cheap with either.– In 2007, an UK career education research study found

that life long skill development and career planning increases life time net income by over 45%.

– CareerBuilder reports job seekers admit taking 2-10 unpaid days from a current job in order to pursue new training or skills to increase their overall pay 15-30% in their next position.

– Control over development is based upon self assessment of current competencies and seeing gaps in career path or current job responsibilities

Self-investment is considered an old fashion idea. In the first forty years of the last century, most people spent over 75% of their household incomes and free time on skill development on a career. Most were lifelong learners who enjoyed knowledge and saw it enriching all parts of their lives. After WWII, the shift was away from self-directed learning to becoming a “corporate man (or woman)” and businesses took over training their workers in “their way of doing” work. The cycle has come full circle. Making an investment in yourself also helps increase self confidence no matter what you need to face.

Slide 8

Sage Insights

• Make sure the reality of your expertise lives up to perceptions of those around you – if not, identify areas for improvement and fix NOW, not later.

– Reality shows prove that many of us think we have talents that make us stars or winners.

– Mirror, Mirror on the wall. Who is the best worker? Syndrome -Performance reviews and co-worker comments are not best places to see reality for career choices.

– Remember : Jobs are the things we DO. Careers are what we BECOME. Gaps can become the garden bridge between them.

What do reality shows and performance reviews have in common? They both show where our real skills or talents are when measured by a given standard. The mirror standard fails us because we want to listen to the lies of those we like or love over the harsh truth of reality. The mirror syndrome places a performance review or “how am I doing?” into a competition of “I AM better than…” For those with long-term illnesses, the mirror can cause illness identity and career to get voted off the job. Focusing only on the illness and the disruption in a job can cause deceptions of actual skills or physical abilities. Jobs can be adapted to include an illness’ limitations and adapting to the gap can become the gateways to careers not imagined before an illness.

Slide 9

Personal Mission Statement

• Simple one sentence statement

• Easily understood by 4th grader

• Able to memorize and repeat any time / anywhere / under any life stress

• Guides both personal and professional life

• Clearly defines passion and life goal

• Simply is a life compass – States boldly “This is what I am about.”

Briefly, the goal of a personal mission statement is to be the compass for a person’s life and the mind map. Writing a vision statement along with the mission will deepen a person’s values that can be then aligned with a company or industry. (I do not offer this to my clients, but share for this presentation, my own personal use and the reference material below.) There are several great books on this topic. The one I recommend and have worn out two copies of is “The Path” by Laurie Beth Jones (https://www.lauriebethjones.com/index.php). WARNING: The book is written from a Christian perspective, but the method is very clear and easy to follow with real life examples of applications in career planning. On Ms. Jones’ website, there are many ways to re-order or use her mission statement material found in the book. In 1989 wrote my own first version of a personal mission. Over time it has evolved to be simply, “To joyfully encourage, quietly educate, and fiercely engage all those around me with the “what if’s in life” while being an ambassador of love, hope, and social justice in life”. Although I have made some adjustments over the years to my personal life mission in terms of career direction and skill development, I know my mission and try to keep it in mind as I face life’s detours and surprises. When facing tough times, I often start my thoughts at, “I am becoming or doing my mission in this situation? And am I still in line with keeping my mission in life?” Knowing who I am becoming, what am I doing, how can I communicate, and what I am about, are the North, South, East, and West points of my compass.

Slide 10

Mind Mapping

What is mind mapping?• According to Wikipedia: A mind map is a diagram used

to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged around a central key word or idea.

• Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.

• A mind map is often created around a single word or text, placed in the center, to which associated ideas, words and concepts are added.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_map There are many ways to define mind mapping. The point is for this presentation is simply a method of charting career and skills.

Slide 11

Mind Mapping

• Who Invented it, really?

– Porphyry of Tyre (A.D. 234– 305),

– Ramon Llull (1235 – 1315 A.D),

– Leonardo da Vinci (1451),

– Allan Collins (1960)

– Tony Buzan (1975)

Does it really matter? Mind Mapping has a long history and many copyrights. No matter who you choose as the inventor, it is a visual and written way to clarify almost anything. As they say, at least in this presentation, a graphic career diagram is worth a thousand skill ideas.

Slide 12

Resume Gaps

• Any unexplained time period, usually noted in employment missing on a chronological or other styled resume

• Skills mentioned without apparent education, training, or employment as “how learned”

• Unlinked progression of job development

• Missing data or information about career during interview

Illness unexplained or detours taken can be fatal during an interview if those gaps did not develop or increase skills of some kind. According to Edgar H. Schein (the father of Organizational Psychology) what is it that holds a person’s “internal career” or the subjective sense of where one is going in one’s work life together even as they experience dramatic changes in work or personal life? It is a clearly defined sense of self-confidence and recognized knowledge of skills, talents, education, and abilities, along with an evolved plan of action for future development as it pertains to a career path. In other words, taking time to know what one can do and making a plan around it. Career anchors, as Schein calls them, come to attention when suddenly forced to make difficult choices pertaining to self development, career/job changes, and family or health issues. Schein suggests such crisis and work causing gaps can be avoided by knowing what career direction and personal values a person holds. The knowledge empowers the person to endure anything they might face and keep their career in focus, not the temporary situation.

Slide 13

How to use a SWOT ANALYSIS with a MIND MAP

STRENGTH WEAKNESS

OPPORTUNITIES THREATS

SWOT ANALYSIS

A SWOT analysis is a popular project management tool used in business planning to determine a snapshot of where a project or team is, what it faces , and see gaps or connections not yet made.

In working with planning gaps, this method allows a quick, compact view of situations or sudden detours that might otherwise cause gaps in skill development.

I call it the opportunity maker, as you can see problems and brainstorm around them.

SWOT analysis is a simple what to self assess career, skills, or other situations by looking at all sides of a

topic, issue, or project. Finding a strategy is easier when all sides of the issue are on one page and then

ranked. I will have clients do this for homework and then discuss prior to mapping or do a basic four

area question when doing a first map of career direction.

Slide 14

Mind Mapping

The basic Rules:

• Use colors, pictures, images, words, symbols, etc.

• Use one word or very simple phrases

• Use both straight and curved lines or arrows for branches

• Use circles, boxes, etc to capture key sub-headings and place in corners

• Depth or focus on sub-headings should be placed on separate “focus map”

1. Write the career goal or skills to develop that you’re exploring in the center of a page and draw a circle around it.

2. Major aspects of a person’s life that relate or can be connected to main career goal (or Skill area) can be drawn and placed in each corner.

3. On lines out from the center circle or the sub-areas, write word(s) of skills or knowledge gained from involvement.

4. As you "burrow" into the different life areas and uncover other skills gained, draw lines linking 5. Finally, for individual skills gaps or need more knowledge, draw dash lines out from the

appropriate heading line. (These are skills identified to work on.) 6. As you gain new skills or knowledge, connect the dash lines as they are no longer gaps on the

map. 7. Set quarterly skill development goals, benchmarks of growth, allowing maps to be updated. 8. Balance areas where skills are learned or used to give a better life-work harmony to self growth.

Slide 15

How to Map the Gaps

How to draw a mind map: • Start in the center of a blank page and draw or write central theme

– Career focus.• Place sub-heading in each corner • Connect sub-headings/areas of life with branches/ arrows to

central theme if a relationship to career or skill development opportunity can be shown

• From areas of life corners, more than one sub-heading activity can be placed.

• (Example: Volunteer can list several places where a person volunteer’s their time and skills are used or developed. It is common to have many sub-areas –thus why to do a “focus map”.)

• Consider all opportunities to learn or develop new skills and add to map/ use color.

Example of connections and sub heading life areas:

Volunteer can list several places where a person volunteer’s their time and skills are used or

developed. It is common to have many sub-areas –thus why to do a “focus map”.

Slide 16

Family

Job (s)

Volunteer Education / Professional

Training

Volunteer

Family

Starting Point

This is a simple diagram of how a map can be set up. Note how Illness, as a triangle balances career but

is not connected by arrows. That is to keep illness from being career. Keep it separate.

Slide 17

Looking for Opportunity

ILLNESS

Where & what can I teach? In my illness, What can I learn to share with others?During my recovery time, Can I add to my skills?

This is a simple diagram of how to look for an opportunity. Ask open-ended questions to explore what

can be gained from each sub-heading, especially how illness can be seen as career enhancer instead of

career killer. Explore how to find skill development opportunities that can relate or transfer to career or

job performance. Don’t make them up. Sometimes it takes days or weeks to discover. Remember it is a

process and can be refined over time.

Slide 18

Charting the Gaps

• Look at the Big picture of how jobs and life fit toward career goals

• Look for Opportunities that have been over looked or never considered

• Skill knowledge or experience brushed off because not gained on a “job” or at school

• Chart skills needed for career goal and best choices of time / money use

What to watch out for when creating map.

Slide 19

Skill Gap Charting for Career

Burger King Fry Cook/PT

Counter help

Local Library

AM Paper Route

Timing

Cu

sto

mer

Serv

ice

Burger King Fry Cook/PT

This is an example of what a map might look like if career goal was teaching and current life had two

part-time jobs with church and going to library all person could manage due to illness or limitation.

Opportunities of skills are noted at each area. Over time, more skills or places to learn would be added.

Slide 20

Lyn’s Illness

• Lyn’s illness

– Sudden, unpredicted, and mysterious

– Multiple doctor and blood testing visits, etc.

– Forced to reconsider career

• Lyn’s career at the onset of illness

– Full-time email engineer at a major corporation

– Part-time IT instructor at a community college

In the presentation, a live demonstration is planned to take place. For the notes’ sake, I am giving an

example that can illustrate how mind mapping and project management was used to walk someone

through gaps in both career and job skills during a time of chronic illness.

This is the story of what happened to my partner and how I used mind mapping to help reframe her

skills during a time of illness in order to find a new career direction. Lyn did not expect to become ill with

a chronic, long-term illness or the effect it would have on her career. Adding to the illness was the

constant stressor at her full time job was rumor of a downsizing of her team and possible companywide

layoffs because of a global merger with a French company.

Due to the stress of the illness and lack of energy, Lyn was forced to look at a new career direction for

her skills if she left the company or move her skills into a different area of the company if she stayed.

Mapping started by looking at what opportunities were within the company in other areas that used

most of her skills and she could do after the illness. Using a project management model, Lyn was mindful

of keeping goal on a set time line (amount of time off from work for her disability and recovery) and

under a set personal budget for skill development.

Slide 21

Mapping 101

What she loved

• Teaching others

• Black /White ethical lines

• Details

• Finding errors

• Working independently

• Creating data analysis reports or spread sheets

What are her skills

• Natural gift for breaking down ideas or concepts

• Knack for editing and proofing anything

• Managing projects alone

• Maintaining ethical self

• Ability to compile data into easy to understand formats

Lyn’s skills were broken down by what she loved versus what were her major skills that showed up in

various areas of her life. Developing new skills could build from this simple SWOT analysis. Placing both

life and work on her map, Lyn drilled down to find what mattered and her skills that could move to a

new career focus.

Slide 22

Illness verses the Map

What Illness gave

• Time to research field and study for auditing exam

• Met many new people and made network contacts

• Opportunity to reinvent self and adjust career to illness

• Insights to personal limits

What map gave

• Clear goal path

• Assessment of skills from all areas of her life

• Refocus on life and career

• Leaned what she is about –Teaching and Resource

• Targets without time limits

Lyn’s skills were broken down by what she loved versus what were her major skills that showed up in

various areas of her life. Developing new skills could build from this simple SWOT analysis.

Slide 23

Minding the Gaps - Results

• Given the knowledge of illness ups and downs, Lyn could see down times as skill sharpening opportunities

• Gaps in her resume no longer are illness or job loss excuses, but have a planned purpose

• Planning for detours gave her options and control/power illness thus increasing energy

For Lyn, planning for future ups and downs in her health has allowed her to take on projects such as

working and living in Paris for a month, knowing she could have time off equal to time spent on project

when she returned. That project gave her more experience and while allowing flexible work hours to get

enough rest. Planning around down times or natural cycles in her illness prevents her having to worry

about the “what do I do now?” because they are part of the skill development map. The bigger career

picture is including the illness and seeing as an opportunity maker. Lyn has greatly increased directions

she can take her career by managing the map, updating it as her health cycles, jobs change,

opportunities arise, or new skills are learned.

Slide 24

Lessons Learned

Before the Map

• Paranoia and illness caused performance to decline.

• Checked herself into an outpatient therapy.

• Illness was main focus and career/job was not on radar.

• Illness was elephant in the room, career wasn’t even IN the room.

After the Map

• Saw relationship of illness to performance issues.

• Began to focus on career skills and development.

• Illness and career co-existed and were recognized as equally important.

• Illness and career are treated like objects that move around in the same room.

At the onset of the illness, Lyn constantly worried if she would get fired because she did not know how

much it would affect her at work. Wondering if her team would think less of her, she did not share her

illness with anyone outside the HR department. Keeping it a secret, began to isolate Lyn from everyone

at work and soon minor incidents blew up into major emotional outbursts.

Although not in keeping with Lyn’s past performance history, the unexplained behaviors and emotional

state from the medication caused a break with co-workers who stated her performance had declined

rapidly. To handle the job pressures, she checked herself into outpatient care, where it was discovered

to be not depression/paranoia as much as being consumed by the chronic illness in her life. Once she

admitted she was ill and it was not going away any time soon, the weight lifted.

Refocusing with a map, Lyn saw how the illness and not caring about work performance because she

had cycles of energy played a role that she could work around. Finding balance with both illness and

career began to improve job performance, attitude, and work relationships. Taking the illness as an area

of life where there was an opportunity to gain new skills, it lost the power to dominate her and be her

career driver. Now, she moves the illness to be an object in her like and not a definition of who she is.

Slide 25

Your turnIn the workbook, more details and actual breakdowns of elements.

• Define your main goal as the center topic of your map.

• Next add your primary values to your map as free-floating topics.

• Add primary topics, one representing each of the major life roles or domains in your life (i.e.: work, family, church, hobbies, etc.)

• Then add secondary topics, steps and strategies you will undertake to achieve your goal within the context of each life role. (If your map becomes too cluttered, consider creating sub-maps to expand details of each life role.)

• You can assign numeral rankings to create action steps in your plans, allowing it to be easier to know where to start or what is next.

In the presentation, each person can complete the simple map as a in class project.

Outside of the presentation, review the pages and try to work through a mind map of your own career. Keep in mind, the map should be simple and key skills learned in each area should be listed.

In the more detailed maps, consider the idea to set a personal budget, limit time to complete learning new skills, or develop a timeline with bench markers to measure personal skill successes.

Or make a SWOT analysis and write a mission statement before mapping a career path.

This is just a starting point to encourage, educate, and engage you all in looking at career planning around illnesses and disabilities.

Slide 26

Thank You

Paulette M. Glass

Good luck and let me know how your maps turn out at:

pmglass80@yahoo.com

Or feel free to contact me through LinkedIn.

This workshop presentation is about techniques used by Paulette M. Glass at UCP (United Cerebral

Palsy) to assist employable individuals create individualized job maps for career choices and design self

directed employable skill development plans to fill their gaps of unemployment caused by chronic illness

or lifelong disabilities. Participants will also learn how to apply the skills of mind mapping career

development combined with the basics of project management to create a better work-life balance to

deal with times of illness and maintain an employee-employer partnership.

This material was designed and presented by Paulette M.

Glass for use at Mind The Gaps – Professional Skill

Development in Times of Illness /Chronic Illness

Symposium Breakout Session Workshop on April 28, 2009.

All rights are reserved and may not be reproduced or used

without written permission of author. 2009 ©