Come Healing

Those who know me know that I am a big fan of Leonard Cohen, RIP. I became a fan in the 5th grade. Many of his songs read like poetry, and I still find his lyrics inspirational decades later. One song in particular comes to mind after the election. “Come Healing” is about devastation, loss, healing, and love. It teaches us about healing of the body and spirit.

“O troubled dust concealing
An undivided love
The Heart beneath is teaching
To the broken Heart above”

            ~ Leonard Cohen. Come Healing, Old Ideas 2012.

A friend asked me how I was doing yesterday, and I answered “all is good.” She almost bit my head off. She went off on a five-minute rant about the Trump election and how “everything is terrible and all is lost.” The result s of the presidential elections are still very fresh. For many, the pain is still raw. But I have to choose hope over fear. I have to believe that there is more light than darkness, that tolerance, equality and humanity will prevail.

Cohen experienced a devastating betrayal finding out his manager of 17 years stole millions of dollars from his accounts. He was then further harassed and threatened by her. She was sentenced to 18 months in jail and was ordered to pay him back. He found a way to dig deep, heal and create music in the aftermath. Healing starts when we use our pain, frustration, fear and anger as an opportunity to become the best version of ourselves. Pain is a reminder to get real and use our powers, strengths, and gifts to build a better future.

As I support clients through life changes, when the pain comes, it’s often accompanied with a wishful hope that “things would never change.” Given the choice, would you truly make that choice? Would you want to live in a parallel universe where things would never change? Change, hardships, challenges and pain are part of the human experience. I’m a firm believer in the yin and yang of life. We can only appreciate happiness if we’ve experienced heartache. Good things can turn into bad things just as bad things can lead to great things. Failures and success are opposite sides of the same coin. Life is a journey filled with hardships and opportunities. Experiencing the whole gamut of the human experience and emotions is the only way to find true meaning, purpose, and contentment. Only when we strive can we truly achieve!

So let there come healing. Let us come together and create the path to peace.

The Day After Reflections

I jinxed the elections. I woke up yesterday to news reports showing Hillary was leading in the polls. I experienced that wonderful elated feeling of well-being that all is right with the world. And I immediately started writing, words just spilling out onto the page; a euphoric narrative about a brave new world in which we continue to make great strides toward fulfilling the promise of equality, liberty, safety, and justice for all.

By night time I was watching the news with a sense of dread and disbelief. And then reality hit like a sucker punch to the gut. I have been spinning in a whirlwind of emotions: disappointment, fear, sadness, shock, disbelief. I am rarely at a loss for words, but I felt deflated and a bit numb. I am still trying to process how this could have happened.

But the coach in me is awakening, reminding me of the truth I’ve shared with my clients over the years: when encountering defeat, we must not be defeated. There is always a way to move forward. Challenges reveal the core of a person. This is the time to call upon our inner strength to persevere. When we truly value something, we fight for it with every ounce of our perseverance. It may take a while, but we have to keep at it and be the change we want to see in the world.

Yes, let’s take the time to process the loss and deal with our feelings. But let’s get up and move forward with grace knowing there is hope for the future:

https://mobile.twitter.com/EByard/status/796317753749729280

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

~ Socrates

Let today be about re-engaging and re-connecting with those who share our vision of a better world and think about strategies to come together and pull through. I work with clients in new roles to put together their “first 90 days” plan. How about the next 90 days as we head into the holiday season and the upcoming New Year? What should we focus on? What commitments can we make and what actions can we take during these uncertain times? How can we continue to contribute to the canvas we all share for the greater good?

And I'd like to leave you with the following idea. When my friends and I go through a rough patch we send each other “make me smile” messages. They are a reminder to stay positive, focus on the good, and trust that we shall overcome.

Be the light. Keep fighting for a better world! 

The Savvy Professional: Collaboration

This post concludes my Savvy Professional series with tips for job search, interviewing skills, and critical skills for professional success in the modern workplace. It is the soft skills that create a competitive advantage when looking for a job or for a promotion. Another such skill is collaboration. Being willing and able to work well with others is key to career success. It is very rare to come across a job in which you’ll work completely alone. Most jobs require teamwork and collaboration.

Individual roles and responsibilities unfold within a team context. Collaboration requires a big picture understanding of how each person is an important piece of the overall teamwork puzzle. Individuals are expected to accomplish the tasks assigned to them on their own. Collaboration doesn’t imply dumping work on others. It’s never a good strategy to rely on others to pick up the slack. Collaboration is about possessing a strong work ethic and making a consistent effort to produce high quality work. It’s about looking for ways to contribute to the success of the team.

No professional is an island. Modern work life consists of interdependencies. Your decisions and work products affect others. Top 10 qualities of a great collaborator:

1. Team focus: align your personal goals and contributions to the team’s objectives and overall business strategy.
2. Respect: put yourself in others’ shoes and appreciate different work styles, approaches and perspectives.
3. Critical thinking: look beyond conventional solutions and connect the dots.
4. Communication: express ideas clearly, directly, and honestly.
5. Sharing: share the right information and resources with the right people at the right time.
6. Initiative: find ways to pitch in and make things work better.
7. Reliability: mean what you say & deliver on your commitments.
8. Flexibility: meet challenges and create new opportunities within them.
9. Adaptability: there are opportunities to lead in every role we take. Know when it’s time to lead and when to follow.
10. Appreciation: recognize the things that others do best and thank them for their contributions.

I hope that the ideas I’ve offered on strengthening professional skills and supporting professional development will help you keep your career moving in the right direction and create a successful career path. But remember to enjoy the journey. I believe we are most successful when we maintain a healthy life balance and appreciate the special moments we get to experience every day. Life is not like the movie Groundhog Day. We don’t get to repeat any day or have do-overs. Be open to the possibilities that come with each new day to connect with others, contribute to the greater good, and celebrate small wins.

The Savvy Professional: Caring

We all know that caring is important on jobs traditionally referred to as the “caring professions” such as teaching, nursing, and any job involving taking care of people. However, most jobs involve working with other, and thus caring is crucial to a successful career in any industry. I believe caring is a strong predictor of long-term career success. It is what separates the good companies, good leaders, and good professionals from the great ones.

Caring has three essential components:

1. Self-care: physical & emotional well-being
2. Caring about the work: purpose & meaning
3. Caring about others: empathy & collaboration

I often find that ancient wisdom applies to all people of all faiths and all religions and can be incredibly relevant to our modern lives. One such life lesson which comes to mind when I think about the concept of caring is from the didactic Jewish ethical literature. Rabbi Hillel says:

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
But if I am only for myself, who am I?
If not now, when?"
~ Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14

The place to start is to care about ourselves, love ourselves and lead our own lives. We are each responsible for the way we act and the direction of our own life. First, we need to develop and learn to express our individuality. But we cannot live purely for our own benefit. We are a part of a greater whole and need to take the next step and bring our gifts out into the world. Each of us has something unique to contribute to a greater good, to the well-being of society as a whole. And action is required NOW. There’s no better time than the present.

Self-care:
A great career starts with caring about yourself and your dreams. You have to be confident and believe that you deserve success and the good things that come with it. But the road to success is long and winding and far from easy to navigate. Caring is what will carry you through all the setbacks, failures, and everything else life throws at you. When you care about yourself, you do whatever it takes to succeed. When you practice self-care you position yourself for success. Be an active participant, be kind to yourself, and remain positive through the tough times.

Caring about the work you do:
Work has meaning when we care. If you do not care about your own work, no one else will. Work fills a large part of our lives. The only way to be truly satisfied is to give it our best and deliver great work. I love the story about the little girl and the starfish by Loren Eiseley. An old man out for his morning walk on the beach sees a little girl dancing on the beach which is littered with starfish. As he gets closer to her, he realizes the little girl is busy throwing starfish back into the sea. When he asks why she is doing it, she replies that if she doesn’t throw them back, they’d die soon. The old man advises that there are thousands of starfish so, sadly, her efforts wouldn’t make a difference. The little girl quickly bends down, picks another starfish and throws it back into the water. She then looks at the old man and says “it made a difference to that one.” We can make a difference in anything and everything we do; small actions may stack up to make a big impact.

Caring about others:
The real key to navigating both the triumphs and the challenges of the modern workplace is empathy. Simply stated, empathy is putting yourself in another person’s shoes. I highly recommend Brené Brown’s 3 minute YouTube video on Empathy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Evwgu369Jw. Empathy is a prerequisite to building positive work relationships, team work and collaboration. Most professionals work in teams, which are often very diverse and need to collaborate across different countries and time zones. Navigating interpersonal issues can be tricky. Empathy enables people to communicate better and to collaborate more effectively.

Thus, employers should be looking for those employees who care about their professional growth, those who care about the work they do, and those who care about others.

Sample interview questions:

1. Caring about professional growth: What professional development activities do you engage in outside of work?
2. Caring about work/professional pride: What are your standards of success on your job and how do you measure them?
3. Caring about others/collaboration: What approaches have worked best for you in establishing positive and effective work relationships with others? Why have they worked?

I invite you to record your answer to any of the questions above and share with me via Google Drive, Dropbox, or your favorite collaboration platform. I will respond to everyone within 3 business days but can commit to providing detailed feedback only to the first 5 who contact me.

More about interviewing skills in my next blog posts. Be sure to follow the savvy professional series for job search and interviewing tips and offers for free feedback and critique.

Email me at info@choicefulpath.com.

The Savvy Professional: Creativity

Technological advancements affect almost every aspect of our lives and impact modern businesses. As business operations grow more complex, so are the skills required for success in the modern workplace. While every professional needs a variety of technical skills to perform well on the job, these alone are insufficient. Employers look for employees who would add value beyond merely getting the work done and who would seek to contribute on a higher level to the company’s overall success. One such skill is creativity, which is applicable to every job, not just for creative professionals. Employers value creative thinking because it drives change in the workplace. Steve Jobs defined creative people as those who are able to “connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things.” In other words, creativity is the ability to see the world in new ways and to make new connections that result in new and better solutions. Ideas are a dime a dozen, the proof is in the implementation. Creativity requires execution. What separates the dreamers from the truly creative is the drive to turn an idea into a reality. 

Innovation is the byproduct of creativity; it is when an idea is implemented resulting in a better process, product or service.

Creative people always look for ways to leverage opportunities. They say that hiring talented people is the first step in building a creative work environment. The next is to allow them to generate new and fun ideas to improve the business. We are all born with the muscle of creativity. Like any muscle, it needs to be strengthened and stretched. And like any other skill, if you want to improve your mastery and become more creative, you need to practice. Here are some ideas:

1.    Become an idea-generating machine

Set aside time to brainstorm work-related ideas. This could be as little as one hour a week to think about ideas you have, nothing is outside the realm of possibility. Try and come up with at least one new idea a week: a new strategy, a more efficient process, a new project, etc.

2.    Work to your strengths

Think about ways you can do your job better and more efficiently utilizing your talents and skills more fully. If you are not sure what those are, ask friends or colleagues. Alternatively, you may want to consider taking the Gallup’s Strength Finder Assessment ($15 for the basic package.) See: https://www.gallupstrengthscenter.com/

3.    Use the time-travel technique

Think about a career goal and visualize yourself as you have achieved a desired positive outcome. Now work your way backward identifying the actions you’d need to take. Focus on the “what” not the “how.” Things will then begin to unfold.

4.    Seek inspiration and fuel up on creativity

Find the time to take mental breaks and to do the things that inspire and energize you. Allow your mind to wander and find your thinking space to unlock your creativity.

5.    Get perspective

Think about what others would do or say and consider different perspectives on the issue at hand. Try and identify new angles.

Creativity sparks innovation in the workplace. Employers look for candidates who use good logic and creativity in answering interview questions. It’s all about being able to answer the question with confidence and showing how you arrived at your answer. Google is notorious for its nontraditional interview questions requiring creative thinking with many other employers following suit.

Sample interview questions reported by clients:

1. What would you uniquely bring to our culture?
2. We strive to do more with less. Tell me about a recent project that you made better, more efficient, or less expensive.
3. Can you tell me about a time you tried to solve a problem with ideas and methods that had not been tried before?
4. If you woke up and had 500 unread emails in your Inbox and could only answer 100 of them, how would you choose which ones to answer?
5. Explain a database in three sentences to your 95 year old great aunt.

Check out “Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google?” by William Poundstone:

https://www.amazon.com/Are-Smart-Enough-Work-Google/dp/0316099988/

I invite you to record your answer to any of the questions above and share with me via Google Drive, Dropbox, or your favorite collaboration platform. I will respond to everyone within 3 business days but can commit to providing detailed feedback only to the first 5 who contact me.

More about interviewing skills in my next blog posts. Be sure to follow the savvy professional series for job search and interviewing tips and offers for free feedback and critique.

Email me at info@choicefulpath.com.

The Savvy Professional: Curiosity

Technical skills may get you an interview, but it’s the soft skills that will get you the job and keep you there. Most companies look for candidates who are creative and innovative. Curiosity is an essential component to creativity and innovation. Curious individuals tend to be the company’s superstar employees. These employees are typically highly engaged and interested in their work and take the initiative to explore new ways of doing things. They bring high levels of energy and fresh perspectives into the workplace. Curiosity is a driving force to keep learning new things. 

A strong desire to learn and experiment leads to new discoveries and innovation. To avoid stagnation, individuals need to continuously learn and improve, and companies need to create a workplace culture that encourages curiosity.

Curious employees tend to:

1. Pursue new knowledge
2. Do more than is required of them
3. Take initiative at work
4. Ask questions and search for out-of-the-box solutions
5. Recognize new opportunities and possibilities

A good career growth strategy is to learn to properly hone curiosity. It means evaluating learning needs and actively seeking learning as well as opportunities for personal and professional development. It also requires an open mind and a keen desire to dig deeper and look further than what’s obvious. It is our professional duty and responsibility to keep well-informed by asking questions and investigating possibilities. Asking questions is the key to unleashing excellence. The ability to ask the right questions is one of the most important professional skills. Powerful questions have a purpose and result in learning. Always ask yourself whether your question would generate new knowledge and insights. The right questions challenge assumptions, stimulate thinking, trigger insights, and drive progress.

To ask the right questions, always consider the three P’s: Purpose, Possibilities, and Progress.

• Purpose: what can be learned and achieved?
• Possibilities: what new ideas and paths can be generated?
• Progress: how to support development and growth?

Professional growth is all about having the right attitude towards work and personal and professional development. Employers look for people who are keen to develop and learn. Most jobs involve change, and employers want people who are adaptable, who would learn new things quickly and who would embrace change. Typical interview questions to gauge curiosity are:

1. Tell me something you have taught yourself in the last six months. How did you go about teaching yourself this new skill or idea, and what was the outcome?
2. Tell me about the last time you had to learn something new on the job. How did you go about learning it? What tools, if any, did you utilize?
3. Describe a work project that you volunteered for at work, even though you weren’t 100% sure you knew how to proceed at the beginning.
4. In which work areas are you really interested in expanding your knowledge? How do you intend to achieve this?
5. How do you stay on top of developments and trends in your field?

And again interviewers always ask what questions you have for them. Curious people will ask original questions. 

I invite you to record your answer to any of the questions above and share with me via Google Drive, Dropbox, or your favorite collaboration platform. I will respond to everyone within 3 business days but can commit to providing detailed feedback only to the first 5 who contact me.

More about interviewing skills in my next blog posts. Be sure to follow the savvy professional series for job search and interviewing tips and offers for free feedback and critique.

Email me at info@choicefulpath.com.