The Brilliant Career and the Pattern that It Follows

Careers are now taking on a myriad of different patterns - though the proper job with its plateau remains dominant. A brilliant career might follow the following pattern:

The stages of learning

Learning a new skill you pass through a number of stages:

• Unconscious incompetence - You don't know you can't do it.
• Conscious incompetence - You know what you can't do.
• Conscious competence - You are aware that you are doing it.
• Unconscious competence - You do it without thinking
  

This, inevitably, is an optimistic scenario. But it gives some idea of the range of experience and skills which will be increasingly critical in managing your own brilliant career. Overcoming the plateau, so that your skills and experience are continually developed and enhanced, is critical to success.

Consultant and author, Tim Foster, has managed to forge his own unique career. Periods of self-employment in the 1970s and 1980s have been punctuated by spells with large organizations. Like a growing number of people, he has called the shots rather than dodging the bullets in the corporate rifle range. In mapping out their own futures many others will follow a similar path.

According to the Inland Revenue, if you can answer 'yes' to the following questions, it will usually mean you are self-employed:

• Do you have the final say in how the business is run?
• Do you risk your own money in the business?
• Are you responsible for meeting the losses as well as taking the profits?
• Do you provide the main items of equipment you need to do your job, not just the small tools many employees provide for themselves?
• Are you free to hire other people on your own terms to do the work you have taken on? And do you pay them out of your own pocket?
• Do you have to correct unsatisfactory work in your own time and at your own expense?
  

If you work in an organization and can't answer 'yes' to these questions, think of the changes in your life if you did work for yourself and could answer 'yes'.

" Achieving a balance

'Work is more than a job', says Charles Handy. 'In the past, business was the employer of all those who wanted to work. In the future there will be lots of customers, but not lots of jobs.' To Handy the future world of work will follow, what he calls, the 'doughnut principle'. 'Organizations have their essential core of jobs and people surrounded by an open and flexible space which they fill with flexible workers and flexible supply contracts,' he says. Handy argues that organizations have neglected and misunderstood the core while expanding and developing the rest of the doughnut. He attaches the same image to people's personal development, suggesting that many need to sit down and return to first principles if they are to achieve a balance in their lives.

The trouble is that balance is notoriously elusive. Frenzied commuters may feel totally drained by the morning train journey, but they usually shrug their shoulders and reflect that their salary makes it worthwhile. The self-employed may miss the routine of actually travelling to work. The novelty of walking upstairs to the office while dodging the clutter of toys and side-stepping family debris may quickly pall. But a balance can be achieved. Charles Handy actually practices what he preaches. He has, what he labels, a portfolio. He writes, teaches and works with a variety of organizations. He also spends time abroad.

Others in the same business have a similar approach. Management consultant Richard Pascale is internationally renowned for his work and is paid by some of the world's leading corporations to advise them. His life appears highly stressful and demanding. He manages an interview over breakfast at seven o'clock in the morning. It is interrupted by the chauffeur of a chairman of a major company - the chairman is in a car outside asking whether Mr Pascale can travel with him to the airport to provide advice and reassurance. Yet, despite such demands on his time and energy, Pascale balances his life with extreme care and has managed to do so for a lengthy period. 'As I was finishing my MBA at Harvard, my colleagues were frantically searching for the "perfect" job. I found myself troubled by the process and unable to engage in it with enthusiasm,' he recalls. Then, one day I had an epiphany -what I really wanted to do was spend a quarter of my life teaching; a quarter consulting (to test the relevance of theory in practice); a quarter writing (something I enjoy - and when you put your ideas on paper you discover the holes in the logic); and, finally, a quarter of my life on holiday (to recreate). I have endeavored to achieve that balance ever since.' Richard Pascale knows what he enjoys, knows what he is good at and knows which of his interests is liable to make the most money. He achieves a balance.

Sceptics might say that it is alright for highly paid management consultants to create a portfolio, but impossible for mere mortals with decidedly limited amounts of money, weighty mortgages and skills that are difficult to see being sold elsewhere.

It can be done. The revolution at work falls into two categories:

• People who have more flexible working arrangements -such as job sharing or working from home - but who still work for an organization. The Henley Centre for Forecasting estimates that 15 per cent of work in the United Kingdom will be performed remotely by 1995.
• Those who have cut the corporate apron strings and have struck out for themselves.

Increasingly, the divide between the two is becoming hazy. Managers, for example, are now made redundant but are subsequently retained as consultants. Similarly, organizations are 'outsourcing' many of their activities to external organizations. Instead of doing everything in-house, they rely on external experts and specialists to supply their skills if, and when, they are required.