In this section, we're going to think about, your career. Your career as a leader. What do you need to think about, and how do you best develop your career? Well, just to give it a little bit of background, first of all: careers are changing. So how are they changing? Well, one overall change, is they're moving from what people used to call, a "T-shaped" career - so think of a capital letter "T", where you develop specialism, possibly quite narrowly for a number of years, so moving up the central part of that "T" - before broadening out of the top into management or leadership roles. That's the way careers used to be. Now they're moving to what people are increasingly calling "lattice-style" careers. And I'll give an example and show you a picture in a minute on those. But what does this mean in general? Well, it means that careers are becoming more of almost a portfolio of experiences, where you're collecting experiences and skills along the way. And this is true whether you're in the same organization for many years - or whether you're moving; it works for both. So let's look at an example of this lattice-style career. Here's a picture from the legal sector, legal services, where this change has very much happened. As I say, this shift from being more "T"-shaped careers, to lattice-style careers. So here's a picture: and we're going to work through it from the bottom to the top. And this is someone's career, just an example pathway. At the bottom, in Phase A, you'd have the person coming in, perhaps not just through a regular degree having left high school, but one of these degree apprenticeships, a different style of qualification, where you're partly working and partly learning at the same time, so it's a different route in. Then you move into Phase B. You still might develop some expertise, because that's important. But then you notice, at Phase C, that your employer, your organization, has invented a new team, a new department, the data analytics team - so you take your expertise and your specialism and you apply it more where this technology is being used in the firm. Interesting. You then move to Phase D. At this phase, you're starting to have some management experience - because you know that from all the data and from the analytics, you're starting to advise clients and create for clients, knowledge tools - so you move into that department. The firm then decides to develop not just tools, but a whole client solution center where you're facilitating client discussions and you're part of the team now leading that: you're getting quite senior. Then finally, at Phase F, you move into this "Markets and Industry Strategy" group. You're advising clients now in different ways, because your firm is not just focusing on helping them with, say, corporate law, employment law, finance law. It's more saying to clients: "We know about shipping, we know about telecommunications". So the role becomes broader. It's one of the industry strategy groups. So that's an example of a lattice-style career, but that's very different from how it used to be in the legal sector with a more "T"-shaped career when you would just come in, develop your narrow specialism, and then move to the top and just become a leader of that specialism - a big difference. So having looked at the lattice-style career and the changing career paths, let me end by giving you a five-point plan for your career development. Firstly, think about "Where?" Where am I headed? Where do I want to go? Someone gave me some advice many years ago, which I thought was quite useful. They said: "Nigel, in terms of direction, always think two steps ahead". In other words, think about what role do I want, not just next, but actually in two steps' time. And this works very much just in terms of staying in the same organization as of moving as well. So think about: "I'm very interested in that department of your organization. That's where I'd like to get to in two steps' time. But to get there in two steps' time, what do I need to think about now - and what do I need to think about from my next role, to build my skills and my capability so that I'm ready for that step in two steps' time?" Secondly, think about "When?" That's my second on your five-point plan. And the "When?" here is about upskilling. When do you need to upskill? Any my message to you is, the way careers are going, the answer to that is: always, now. Because throughout our careers now, careers are changing so quickly, and jobs are changing so quickly, that we need to be constantly upskilling ourselves throughout our careers - so the "When?" is now. The third point is: "How?" How do you develop your career? Well, there for me it's about experimentation, and I love the model of the Center for Creative Leadership here, who came up with the idea of "70, 20, 10" as a way of thinking about your career development. Seventy percent should be learning on the job, should be about those little experiments and experiences you get. Twenty percent we learn from others, and 10 percent should be formal learning. But it's an interesting balance that, isn't it? Notice the difference in the sense of, it's not all about going on courses - that should be 10 percent of your learning. A lot of it should be learning by doing. The fourth point of my five-point plan is: "What?" And this is a reflection point. What am I enjoying? What do I love about this role, and what do I think would be interesting in the next role too? And the last point of my five-point plan, just to extend that, is: "What else?" In other words, what else do I enjoy? Again, just to share some experience. I remember someone once said to me: "I enjoy my job, but what I'm learning is, I'm enjoying all the bits, almost around the edges of the job. I have my core role but I love doing the graduate interviewing. I love doing this of part of my role. I love doing some teaching and training as part of it as well. That's not my core job, but they're the things I'm enjoying." So my message to you is, notice those and think: "How does that inform me and guide me into what I may need to do next - and would like to do next as well?" So let's just summarize those five points again. Where am I headed? Two steps ahead thinking. When do I need to upskill? How do I do it - through experimentation? What am I noticing I enjoy? And what's around the edge of the job as well? The "What else?"
