How do Ladies Build the Second Curve by Using OKRs?
When 30+, the anxiety increased? Challenges in both career and family life?
From a traditional point of view, the age of 30 years + may be a turning point for ladies to become unproductive in their life and career. Age, marriage, income, career competition, etc. increased anxiety. It seems time flies to ladies after 30 + and life have created a more demanding obstacle for them.
Hui Ming, working hard in HR for more than 15 years as a senior HR manager, was retrenched by her company because of the Covid-19 pandemic. She has made tremendous achievements in her company, and she is already a senior manager. But it is also hard for her to be promoted to the next level in the company.
Before Covid-19, promotion and salary increment was in her planning for 2020. But before she got that, she received the letter of Voluntary Separation Scheme letter from the company. The reason she received from her company was: the economy is terrible, and she is already 38 years. The company hopes she can give opportunities to younger people to facilitate the company to overcome the recession. Somehow she knew she would receive a letter like this one day, but she has not expected this day to come so fast.
She has been unemployed for two months now, and she had submitted her resume many times to different companies, but no companies called her for an interview so far. As an HR manager, Hui Ming was very clear that companies have concerns about the ages of female employees. It is almost like unwritten rules when interviewers are screening resumes.
A monthly house loan, children’s tuition fee, all kinds of installment fees, etc are pushing her beyond her limits. Her midlife crisis has come earlier when more and more young workforce joins the corporate world.
Compared to those career ladies, midlife crisis are arriving even earlier for housewives. Compared to the overtime working hours in the office, housewives have unbelievable long working hours, no paid public holidays at all, and 0 income.
Stagnant career development and out of date skills make it difficult for housewives to come back to career… …
When 30+,re-grow and reset
Indeed, 30+ is a crisis for most ladies. But it is not the end of life. Age shall not be a barrier to a happy life. Every lady can be confident and beautiful even when they are in 30+. Sheryl Sandberg is the chief operating officer of Facebook. After the sudden death of her husband, Sheryl Sandberg felt certain that she and her children would never feel pure joy again. A friend told her: Option A is not available. So let’s kick the shit out of Option B. Then, her friend told her there are concrete steps people can take to recover and rebound.
Resilience is like a muscle. We need to help ourselves to build it. Every lady shall not underestimate the contribution they make to the family and society. But as ladies, we shall have the competency of combating risks in our life. Every lady shall at least have below two skills:
Skill No1: life long learning.
Family and children are part of our lives. But they are not all of us. Ladies may scarify their careers for their family life, but we shall not lose the motivation to learn and upskill ourselves. If we are surrounded by house chores every day, we are likely to hear the little voice like: I don’t deserve it. Or I cannot achieve that.
Your investment in learning is the 1st step of upskilling yourself. It isn’t easy to squeeze time to upgrade yourselves when you are taking care of your family. But if you don’t challenge yourself, you never unleash your potential.
Skill No2: Plan your life and career for the next 3-5 years.
When you are 30+, when you are in the bottleneck of your career and life, how to bring yourself to the next level? How to make sure your knowledge and skills are not depreciated? You shall consider using OKRs to plan your personal or life goals.
OKRs: How do OKRs help you reset your personal or life goals?
To many people, OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) are something new, although it came to the industry more than 40 years ago. Objectives mean: where do I want to go. Key results indicate: how do I get there. It is a management strategy framework to improve organizational focus, alignment, and engagement. Those companies who applied OKRs 20 years ago like Google or Intel had more than hundreds of times growth.
But OKRs are also great for setting goals outside of the corporate world, and they are helping people build a stronger relationship with their family, preparing for a better career or personal life. John Doeer, the author of Measure What Matters, who introduced OKRs to Google, shared his personal OKRs. For example, one of the OKRs he set for himself is to have more quality family time. The key results to achieve this objective is to :
– Be home for dinner by 6:00 pm 20 nights a month and be present (Key Result No1)
– Being present by turning off the internet router to eliminate distractions (Key Result No2)
How can OKR help ladies to overcome 30+ crisis?
If you are a housewife, by using this objective management framework, you can improve the balance between your personal growth with your family goals, so the overall happiness of your family members is improved.
If you are a career lady, having a bottleneck in your midlife crisis, OKRs train you to focus what matters in your career and help you have a breakthrough in your career or accelerate your journey of mastering another new skill so you can be ahead of your competitors. OKRs does not only help you to achieve your results faster but also upgrade your critical thinking skills.
The confidence of ladies is never given by others. It is built upon our planning and the achievement we get along the journey. Independence, charming, when you are in your 30+, your golden life journey just set off.
To know more, visit the web-page: https://www.growthmindsetglobal.com
