A recent survey by Hewett Associates, the human resources consultancy, found that more than half of organizations are cutting the training budget. That can be a morale problem for managers, but a career obsolescence problem for professionals. The rule, of course, is to keep educating. For companies, that's an issue of competitive advantage. For individuals, it's about your career future.
How do you continue educating when all the budgets are getting cut? A brief note in today's Wall Street Journal suggests that companies can provide internal training, "cross-business assignments" or on-the-job training. Excellent recommendations. But you can be sure that companies thinking about training in this environment will be in the minority. Many will be concerned primarily with remaining afloat.
What's a professional to do?
First of all, stay focused on building your toolkit. It's easy to ignore personal development when you're working in a climate of fear. Yet remember one important characteristic of the talent age: your network is your mentor. It's impossible to find a traditional mentor today, that manager who has the expertise to guide you through organizational politics, make sense out of work relations and support you in the development of the necessary competencies and tools. Instead, this is the time to build and enlarge your network, developing and accessing the people who can assist you in your development.
Second, I'd stay focused on the firm's position in the marketplace. Be ready to take advantage of every situation and prepared to move on should the financials look impossible. Vendors are key contacts in a tough economy, so build those relationships more firmly. Often, they have information not available to anyone inside the firm.
I'm an optimistic person, but I don't believe in pure luck. Instead, I've always been attracted to that famous statement by the Roman philosopher and politician, Seneca: Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.