Having the right ingredients is key and sometimes substitutions don’t work as well. Milk can’t really replace heavy cream and fresh nutmeg -- rather than bottled -- can altogether change the taste of your final product. Not having a necessary ingredient or a decent substitute can mean an inedible result!
Relaunching is kind of like baking. It requires a set of ingredients
for a great outcome: a self assessment process, a great strategy, a
polished resume and Linked In profile, a compelling narrative, and
intangibles like confidence and a sense of curiosity. One additional
ingredient, however, can elevate your relaunch process: a Group.
Belonging to a cohort or community of counterparts can altogether
change the trajectory of your reentry into the paid work world. Virtual
group engagement during COVID can provide opportunities to meet and
work with relauncher-colleagues across a wide geographic area.
Groups have a magic or power. What seems impossible to accomplish
alone, suddenly seems within your reach. Groups have a collective
energy that’s exponentially greater than the sum of its individual
members. When you join forces with a Group, you stand to gain in
invaluable ways. Here’s how:
Opportunity to Visualize: Groups give you the chance to talk about
yourself, your skills, experiences and possible employment targets in a
more elevated or professional way than you’d talk to a spouse or
friends. It’s like a rehearsal, and you’re trying out an identity.
Seeing yourself in this return-to-work identity and going public with
it builds your confidence and your momentum. Once you’ve identified
yourself to your Group as a relauncher and committed to goals, there’s
no turning back!
Break Down Obstacles: Let’s assume you’re relaunching in isolation,
and you tell yourself to complete four informational interviews next
month, but you only do one. Your inner critic might blast you for this.
She doesn’t care how or why your strategy to get those interviews
didn’t work. She’ll just remind you that you’re lazy or disorganized.
Your Group, on the other hand, will help you break down the obstacles
that stood in your way of completing that goal.
Accountability: This is one of a Group’s best assets. When you
commit to taking action, your Group wants you to execute, and you don’t
want to disappoint them. Your Group’s expectation that you’ll come
through both for yourself and for them creates an accountability dynamic
that simply can’t be duplicated in a solo context.
An Instant Network: Many relaunchers with long career breaks tell me
regretfully that they don’t have a network anymore, or that their
network is ‘just a bunch of other moms.’ Joining a Group catapults you
into a fresh new network of professionally minded peers who offer a
double bonus: they understand your situation and they have networks.
Your ability to benefit from the expansion of your network by joining a
Group is invaluable, regardless of whether you are from the same
industries. I’ve seen a relaunching mechanical engineer connect a
relaunching finance professional with the contact that got her back to
work after a 12 year career break!
Groups offer so much, in addition to being fun. Find a Group. Start a
Group. Join a Group. It’s an ingredient will take your relaunch
process from ‘just okay’ to a five star confection!
