Ohene Effah’s Career Planning Pointers At Effective Living Series

The first day of the third week of the Effective Living series on the Citi Breakfast Show featured a mind-opening discussion on Career Planning and Development.

Development Practitioner and Impact Entrepreneur, Michael Ohene Effah broke down a number of steps a person starting out in the business world can adopt when planning their career.

Mr. Ohene Effah outlined five characteristics of the 21^st century which were vital to any business-minded person as they aimed to discover their purpose in life, build their mindset and skills, and plan their career progression.

He said the first defining characteristic is ‘change’ which he believes is the only constant as we see in every part of our lives.

He noted the increase in the number of technological innovations in recent times which has driven so much positive change in our economic sector.

“So in planning your career and developing your skills, you need to recalibrate and re-engineer your life to be relevant because change happens in everything,” he said.

“The 21st century demands people to be creative, innovative, flexible, adaptable and be able to add value to their work because any job that is repetitive can be done by a robot.”

He added that that in order to survive and grow as an entrepreneur or an employee one needs to pay attention to three crucial characteristics of the 21st-century key; namely, control, convenience and speed.

He also noted that in conducting an analysis of themselves, individuals need to consider their interests – what they like, love or do – and must be able to identify what makes them comfortable.

“Some people are good with people, some people are good with facts and others are good at things. Before you even start to think about your career, ask yourself these questions? If you are someone who likes working with things, don't go and take a role that puts you in contact with human beings? Or else you will become agitated all the time because you don't like human beings and you will be left alone,” he said.

Michael Ohene Effah also advised that individuals need to find their “natural intelligent types” and apply themselves in order to excel in their chosen careers instead of agitating themselves, their employers and customers.

“Never allow yourself to be put in a role that conflict with your personal value, natural skills and attitudes,” he said.

Michael gave a simple direction about discovering yourself, which is asking yourself four simple question.

“Take a paper or a book and draw a cross so you get a quadrant, now on the left side, write internal, on right side write external, now in the top left corner answer the question ‘what is that I love?’ Now on the down left, ask yourself ‘what is that I am good at?’ In the top box write: ‘what is that the world needs?’ Then in the bottom box, ask yourself ‘what can I be paid for?” he said.

He explained that this quadrant is a pointer to your purpose in life “That which you love and that which the world needs is your mission in life. That which you love and that which you are good at his your passion in life. That which you love and that which you can be paid for is your profession.”

Mr. Ohene Effah encouraged everyone to do this exercise in order to be free from needless anxieties for the rest of their lives.

“Your passion is internal, your vocation is external, and your mission and profession are in between the two.

Speaking on the right mindset and skills needed to excel in the 21^st century, he said the following ten skills were critical:

1. Ability to work in a team structure.
2. Ability to make decisions and solve problems.
3. Ability to communicate verbally and with people inside and outside the organisation.
4. Ability to plan, organise and prioritise work.
5. Ability to obtain and process information.
6. Ability to analyse quantitative data.
7. Technical knowledge related to the job.
8. Proficiency with computer software programs.
9. Ability to create and/or edit written reports
10. Ability to sell and influence others.

Micheal Ohene Effah noted a number of things to do in planning your career and developing your skills which are very important to ultimately achieving success in their careers.

“You have to do both an organisational and industry analysis. Understand where you want to see your organisation in the next five years, in ten years and what competence will be needed to achieve these goals of career planning and development of your skills.

“The second thing is to be fluent in globalization. You must think global and act local, and you must master a set of three complex but interdependent skills. If you want to be globally competitive, think critically and creatively, collaborate and communicate.

“Identify a niche at the workplace, you must be known for something, crave a space within the organisation which you are the most competent, to make you a valued team member. Be a long life learner, if you want to be a long lasting employee you must be engaged in learning always, never stop learning,” he added.