In the previous lecture, we started exploring scenario three, job diversification, in which our goal was to explore how you can increase your employability by adding a new skill in a different area to existing set of skills. In this lecture, we'll be focusing on enhancing your ability to set and accomplish concrete and effective skills building goals. You may recall that we started exploring a case which featured Michael, a Marketing associate who is contemplating his need to develop a supplementary skill in Business Analytics so he could apply for a higher level position as a Marketing Analyst. According to recent trends in the job market having a proficiency in business analysis is now very desirable for a successful Marketing Analyst. You will recall that Michael is a fictitious person who represents an adult learner already in the marketing profession who is striving to advance his career by using a strategy of job diversification. When creating the Michael persona, we consulted with Gene Diachara, a Marketing Instructor and Consultant based in Rochester, New York. I helped create a JAFAR from Michael. Because his marketing knowledge and skills are very good, there is no immediate need for improvement there. I expect a hiring manager to give him a high score for those competencies. At this point, the content of the JAFAR is just an educated guess. Someone in the profession can adjust for his situation. Michael's problem is that he has little to declare under business analytical skills. Based on our assumptions about the job and Michael's preparation we compiled a skill set summary checklist for him. As you may expect the total skill set scores came up low, overall, we think that it is unlikely that Michael would be asked for an interview if he applied for the position without well documented and verified evidence of at least intermediate level proficiency in Business Analytics. At this point, how would you advise Michael? What do you think would be the best strategy for his professional development to prepare for the job selection process? Michael is likely to be better off if he adopts a strategy aimed at eliminating his weakness in Business Analytics, we can run the JAFAR again to demonstrate that by moving up the assessment score for Business Analytics, for example, from zero to two he will hit the target score of 75 percent. Of course, this score will not guarantee his getting a job offer but it will allow him to reach the qualified pool and to become a suitable candidate for the position. Suppose, that Michael agrees with our conclusion. What will he need to do to reach at least the intermediate level of mastery and performing the skill that he never practiced on his current or previous jobs? Is it realistic? Is it possible to claim a skill if for example, he only attended an online course to learn about it? To help Michael find an answer, let review the resultant selection criteria statement in the previous lecture. If you compare any other page in the document with page number four for business analytics you'll see clearly what's missing in his preparation. For all other skills there are clearly identified critical tasks that are relevant to the position, for all tasks there are benchmarks telling about how the tasks should be done, for all benchmarks there are benchmarking criteria explaining how the benchmarks work. Also there is evidence and there are assessments. None of that is currently present on the business analytics page. At this point Michael needs to conduct field research to learn more about the skills required for Business Analytics. What are the duties of those in this profession? What critical tasks do they perform? How does one move from a marketing analyst to a business analyst? What is the experience of those who did it? To find this information, Michael needs to review relevant professional publications, recruiting websites and blogs. He should also attend workshops and examine the LinkedIn profiles of practitioners, if he comes up with the right questions chances are that he will find helpful answers. Also, Michael should conduct research before taking online courses. He may find that some courses are better suited to serve his needs. Taking online courses is an important first step but it may not be enough. We asked Gene to help Michael think about how to further clarify his skill building goals. After analyzing the position Gene came up with the following adjustment for the required skill set. Okay. Let's do something like this. Two critical points for a Business Analyst in the marketing world would be to focus on the company's bottom line and to implement a sort of business intelligence. First, he will need to learn how to prepare forecasts, flexible budgets, and to analyze trends, with a focus on Return-on-Investment. Secondly, it will be great for him to master profitability analyses using Power BI, Tableau or similar systems. Also some knowledge of SQL would be an advantage. Thanks Gene. Now that Michael knows about the typical critical tasks he can establish meaningful targets for professional development, but still how could he identify the required levels of proficiency and find samples of mastery? At this point, Michael is ready to start taking online courses or attending workshops because he knows now exactly what he wants to achieve. Also, he can use JAFAR as a guiding and monitoring tool. He just needs to feed JAFAR with the information it is asking for. Look for samples and benchmarks, practice, create artifacts, get them evaluated, apply for a similar job, request feedback, then repeat it. Gene, thank you so much for your help. Before you leave, what do you think about JAFAR? The use of JAFAR was helpful in providing Michael with well-defined professional development goals and in targeting skills and their sequence. Now, Michael knows exactly what he wants to achieve and why. However, he still needs to clarify how and when, overall applying the JAFAR process seems to work well. I can certainly see an organizing framework for establishing and accomplishing SMART goals for his professional growth. This is the second time in the course that we have heard about SMART goals. You may also recall that this is what the trainer wished for in Maria's case. So, why would Maria, Michael and maybe everyone need to use SMART goals? You are probably familiar with the concept of SMART goals, like many other tools SMART goals are often oversimplified and misunderstood. For example, consider the following dialogue: "Are your goals SMART? Yes, of course, my goals are always smart, because I'm a smart person!" Does this sound familiar? Meanwhile, this concept if properly used can be instrumental and very powerful for skills development. Also, it perfectly fits the JAFAR model. Before discussing it in more detail, let's clarify the original meaning of the concept. SMART is a pneumonic acronym that was introduced by business strategists in the 1980s. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound. The framework was initially meant to provide guidance for setting goals in the project management context. In the 1990s, the SMART goals framework was further adjusted by adding E. Evaluate and R. Re-adjust components to close the loop in accordance with the systems theory recommendation. Now, goals become dynamic adjustable and they better connect with the overall strategy. The resultant smarter goals framework is highly regarded in business literature. The main idea behind SMARTER goals is that to effectively execute a strategy the company's managers need to establish concrete milestones. By accomplishing them one by one even a very complex strategy can be successfully and timely executed. The same logic is perfectly applicable for self strategy that's why the concept of SMARTER goals was enthusiastically adopted for use in the professional development context. By now it is well-supported by research, the people in their work and personal life tend to achieve better results if they can translate them into specific, measurable and achievable goals. But the problem with the implementation of smarter goals in the personal development domain is that it is not clear how to formulate them for a concrete person in a concrete situation, that's why we often look for help from trainers, coaches or mentors. Think about it. In companies there are MBA trained strategic planners that use well-designed procedures to develop competitive strategies and to translate them into SMARTER goals. They use many sophisticated tools, including balance scorecards. They do it full time and are paid for that. The question is how an ordinary person could possibly design a sequence of steps to achieve a competitive advantage in the labor market, especially in real time with no professional training and tons of other things to deal with or think about? This is where individual skills management methodology and the JAFAR model in particular can be helpful. By design, the models aimed at gaining a competitive edge in the job market and helps translate the idea of being competitive into realistic scores, targets and the steps to reach the targets. Now, you probably want to practice, in the peer review assignment we will ask you to identify and quantify the immediate targets for your professional development that are in sync with your selected strategy of job excellence, enhancement or diversification. By doing so you will set your SMARTER goals. Here is the final question, do you agree that JAFAR can make you SMARTER?
