2.5: Proposing the Plan of Action
Once a career development professional has established a client’s current situation, elicited some of their history, and clarified their aspirations and challenges, they are ready to negotiate an action plan.
Our clients may not be clear about the process we’re embarking upon to help them make a change. We must present a clear and concrete series of action steps to help them achieve their goal.
The first step is to identify the options they have already considered or that have come up in conversation. Identifying the types of actions they’ve already explored to make a change is essential. Consider all the things they’ve wanted to do. From there, ask permission to suggest some alternatives. This will generate a list of ideas from the client and the CDP to put on the table and consider going forward.
After discussing the alternatives and possible courses of action, agree on a specific plan. This will lead to a clarification of what steps are needed to move forward to reach their goal. Throughout this process, check in to ensure that the client understands the stages and is motivated to embark on this change process. Although we work together, the client will do most of the work to affect this career change. We need to ensure that they have sufficient motivation to conduct this change.
In Lana’s story, it became clear through our conversation that she needed to change the type of work she was doing and the organization she was doing it within. It was also clear that she wasn’t sure what that new type of work would be or where she might find it.
Here are the steps we used to develop an action plan for Lana and how the actions associated with each step helped Lana to stay focused on her goal of affecting a career change.
Step 1: Identify actions and attempts to make changes and ask permission to suggest alternatives.
Action: We visited the stories of things Lana had done in her life that she felt good about and identified her skills and abilities.
Step 2. Generate a combined list of ideas for change.
Action: Helped Lana conduct interviews with individuals to identify areas where her strengths would be best utilized.
Step 3. Discuss the ideas and develop a plan of action.
Action: Developed marketing materials to help Lana market and present herself to others, including a resumé and LinkedIn profile.
Conducted an in-person strategic networking campaign to lead Lana through a series of trusted referrals to attain a new role.
Step 4: Check in with your client to ensure motivation and buy-in to the selected plan of action.
Action: During our discussions, Lana shared that she had been working with a counsellor to deal with her trauma issues. I asked if she would continue this work while we worked on her career change. She committed to doing so. I offered to meet with her and the counsellor if she felt that would be helpful.
Maintained weekly contact throughout this process to ensure that Lana felt confident moving forward and could discuss any key ideas or access new skills that she needed to continue the momentum.
When I checked in with Lana, it was clear that she was highly motivated to engage in this process. One of the things that helped ensure I felt confident in her ability to do this was the stories she shared in our session. Lana shared multiple experiences where she had to make complex changes to care for herself or her children. Her effectiveness at managing change in other life roles gave us both encouragement and confidence that she could accomplish this career change.
A clear and concrete series of action steps to help clients achieve their goal.
