What is Career Agility?

Welcome to the first edition of my newsletter, Career Agility Newsletter (CAN).

Before anything else, allow me to introduce myself. I am Kurly. I officially retired from my corporate job in my thirties to live my dream of helping professionals connect and reconnect with their purpose, passion and potential. But my passion for almost anything career-related did not only start with my big transition out of the corporate world.?

My personal and professional life have always been an eclectic combination of order + logic + structure, and creativity + design + flexibility. In hindsight, what supported me through all the twists, turns and u-turns was agility in my career.

“Agile is a MINDSET, a way of thinking and a collection of values around how work should be organized in a complex and ever-changing world…. Agile is not a method – it is a way of thinking according to a set of values.”?– Pia-Maria Thoren, Agile People

Coming from the world of Information Technology, concepts and terminologies related to software development aren’t alien to me. Before I got my certifications on coaching, I got some basic and intermediate Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) certifications first.

Though I haven’t been doing IT work for many years now (apart from maybe excel spreadsheets and some DIY work on WordPress, if that counts), the concept of agile software development and project management got me curious to find out more and explore how this can be applied in our careers as individuals, and in talent development for organizations.?

So let me kick off this first edition by sharing with you my thoughts on what we can learn and apply from the Agile Software Development Values in the context of our careers. I’ll talk about the 12 principles in the manifesto in another article, so stay tuned.?

There is no standard recipe for career success. No two career paths are the same.

Agile Value #1: Individuals and interactions?over processes and tools

Process and tools are great in supporting the work that we do, but only to the extent that they can make things easy and effective for us. Collaboration among talented individuals will bring more innovation as well as better solutions.

In the career growth, development, transition and strategy point of view, there is also no standard process or tool to one’s career success. Yes there are many tools (frameworks, personality assessments and the like) out there, but these are only meant to support us.

Remember that we are all different. No two career paths are the same. We’re able to better design our strategy and chart our paths through experience and career coaching conversations that allow us to define and clarify what we want, why we want it and how we want to get there.?

Plan your career, then prototype.

Agile Value #2: Working software?over comprehensive documentation

Documentation is important, but focusing on it too much could cause project delays. Getting feedback on actual working software (and not on documents) is more valuable.

Many of us get caught in analysis-paralysis. Maybe not in creating documentations such as in software development, but in creating an elusive foolproof plan. We spend so much time in planning that perhaps sometimes, we never even get to execute and then we complain that “it’s too late.” So go to the drawing board and design your career plan for a while, and then start prototyping.

Prototyping in design thinking, is a “method that involves producing an early, inexpensive, and scaled down version of the product in order to reveal any problems with the current design.” (Source: Interaction Design Foundation). This means that you got to get your hands dirty, get involved and try it out. Read more about how getting involved can help you in your career.?

Know the top stakeholder of your career.?

Agile Value #3: Customer collaboration?over contract negotiation

To explain this briefly, this means, know what the customer wants, and get constant feedback.?

Let’s go straight to the point, the number one stakeholder in your career is yourself. Before thinking of what actions to take or where to find jobs, know yourself first – what do you really want? What brings you joy? What are your interests? What are your most important values? What are your priorities in life? What does success mean to you? These are just some of the questions for which you should have clear answers.

And do check-in with yourself often too. Remember that as human beings we evolve. Your answers two years ago might not be the same answers you have today.?

Plan your career enough, prototype then pivot.

Agile Value #4: Responding to change?over following a plan

This ties very closely with the second value mentioned above. In my own words, plan enough, prototype, then pivot as needed. This means we create a plan that’s enough for us to get started towards the direction that we want, start executing (or prototyping) and then we pivot as we encounter opportunities (or obstacles) along the way. Plan – Prototype – Pivot.?

Did you know that when I left my corporate job, my initial plan was really to go back to corporate, shift to a career in Human Resources (HR) after a 6-month break? Well, that didn’t happen. I did search for jobs and did upskill myself to prepare, but it didn’t happen. I pivoted and here I am.?

So, what then is career agility?

Let me leave you with this working definition and build on it as we go along. Career agility means having the mindset of awareness, curiosity and continuous learning as we go about our professional lives.?

Do you know of anyone who is agile in their career? What values or principles helped them through? Tag them below and share your own story of career agility too.??