Need motivation in the New Year?

As 2018 gets going, ICAEW Council London member Angela Caldara wonders what lies ahead and how, as an FCA, she might be able to motivate others.

January 2018

How many times have we said goodbye to last year and welcomed the New Year hoping that all will be better than last year? Some hope that the New Year will bring them an upwards and forward movement, work-wise that is!

How big will my bonus be? How big will my pay rise be? Will I get that promotion? How long will it be before we know the answer, and be disappointed? After all, we are always reminded about our career that better means a big bonus, better means a big pay rise and better means a promotion!

See also:

• Embracing location agnostic working
• Could you be a school governor? 

But is “better” a big bonus, a big pay rise or a promotion? After all, not everybody can be promoted. We are also one year older. THAT is a problem! We are working in financial services and banking, and the mind starts wondering, thinking about what somebody said in a national newspaper: “In banking you get cut off at the kneecaps at 45, it’s brutal.” How far am I from that?

The mind wonders again: I am sitting with the rest of my class in the lab at school while in the 6th form, with the physics teacher reminding us that he is proud of his girls studying for A-Level Physics: “You are intelligent, you work hard. Remember, whatever happens to you in your life, nobody can take away what you have here!” he says, while tapping his cranium with his index finger.

He was a true motivator.

I wonder, who has one motivated by working hard in financial services and meeting deadlines?

Former Financial Times management writer Lucy Kellaway may have the answer. She has set up a scheme: NOW TEACH. A most enlighten article appeared last year: “Still standing – my first term as a maths teacher”

I am an FCA, a member of a highly influential, respected, agile professional institute. One can combine being an FCA with being a motivator, like my physics teacher.

Anyway, it’s something to think about for those members who are at the crossroads: how big will my bonus be? How big will my pay rise be? Will I get that promotion?

I wonder. New Year resolutions…

Angela Caldara is a London member of ICAEW Council

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• Embracing location agnostic working
• Could you be a school governor?