A new year, a fresh beginning, and a further opportunity to make personal improvements. Given the stresses of the year that’s past and a jolly festive season, right now many of us are likely to be thinking about our fitness levels and managing our weight and health. Some will have tested different techniques in the past, with varying degrees of success for us. We explore a few of these in this post, and use the fitness analogy to position how Protagion’s services can help to get your career into shape too.

To put different techniques or interventions in context, let’s consider a framework with two dimensions:

• How personalised the technique / activity is, from more generalised to more personalised
• How much interaction with others there is

Our preference for different techniques will depend on a wide variety of factors, including:

• Where we draw motivation from e.g. are we self-directed, or do we prefer external commitments to hold us accountable, such as social pressure?
• Our budget
• Our comfort with technological tools (and our ability to access them)
• The services available where we are based, although the increasing array of online options makes it possible for us to source solutions remotely

​Once our interest in improving our fitness has been piqued, our first step is probably to do some research: what have others done, what’s been personally successful or not for us in the past etc. This helps us frame our initial goals, the targets we set for ourselves once we’ve taken the active decision to move from exploring to doing.

​Read more to see examples of techniques in all the quadrants of the framework, from generalised activities we can do on our own, to more personalised examples of technology-supported guidance, to activities where we are supported by others (the human touch): generalised fitness communities to personalised coaching and training. We then apply the same framework to getting our careers in shape, highlighting career-related examples of resources and services, including those offered by Protagion Active Career Management. Hopefully these inspire you to achieve your professional goals too.

Our proteges know that we at Protagion are strong proponents of understanding ourselves, our aspirations, skills, passions, interests, strengths and weaknesses, in order to achieve our career goals. So much so that ‘knowing yourself’ forms the foundation of the self-directed component of our career management platform, including the Journey of Self-Discovery.

This post explores career self-reflection, specifically clarifying your career and job aspirations in your own mind. This includes looking at where your career is going, what your transferable skills are, what interests, excites and motivates you, and what you actually want from your career.

It is based on a podcast discussion between Elayne Grace, the CEO of the Actuaries Institute in Australia, and Lesley Traverso, director of the Talent Insights Group in Sydney. Lesley has experience of the United Kingdom, Middle East, Asia and Australia, is heavily involved with the actuarial profession in Australia on topics from Continuing Professional Development (CPD) to diversity, and is currently completing her Masters in Culture.

While the podcast was aimed an actuarial audience in Australia, we feel its messages are highly relevant for all professionals globally. It touches on broadly-applicable elements like upskilling ourselves, career transitions, and engaging with our employers about our goals.

Three further examples of international Non-Executive Directors (NEDs) in Part Three of our multi-part series sharing career paths and insights of individuals performing these roles. As before, our shorthand NED includes independent NEDs (iNEDs).

Similar to Part One and Part Two, the individuals represent different levels of NED experience, from those in their first few roles to seasoned board chairs. The need to prepare thoroughly for board and committee meetings has been raised in previous articles, and is mentioned by Part Three’s participants below too. This sentiment is described in more detail in a LinkedIn article on “Being an Effective Board Member” by John Howard, himself an experienced NED with a legal background. He describes the importance of preparation for these meetings like this: “Before each board and board committee meeting read the board book and reread relevant material from orientation. Speak to the Chairman and CEO (if the roles are separate) before the meeting. Meaningfully discuss the agenda, issues that concern you, and make suggestions so they know before the meeting your state of mind. Lack of preparation is the most common trait of bad directors.” John adds that proper preparation allows NEDs to bring something innovative to every board meeting, offering the idea for consideration at an appropriate time.

​Jose Ribeiro, Sheelagh Malin and Karabo Morule are profiled in this article, and we hope that their reflections and recommendations will prompt your own reflection. Read more below for their career paths and NED experiences.