Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Category: Audio Downloads

  • Listen In -> Self Care. A Smart Career Move #5: Keeping Yourself Centered and Attentive

    We conclude our series on self-care as a smart career move with a look at being attentive to how centered (or not) we are.

    The more true we can be to our true selves, the better we can show up at work. If it’s not okay to be who I am, then one of my tasks becomes to pretend to be someone else… to change into someone different than myself. That’s an enormous pressure.

    It’s pressure without poise.

    Poise comes from getting comfortable in your own skin: your own working style, your personal values, your supervision preferences, your areas of interest, your goals and aspirations, your particular skills, etc.

    How centered do you feel as you face the pressures of your working day?

    Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Self Care. A Smart Career Move #4: Challenging Yourself to Achieve

    Create your own stress!

    You’ve got to be kidding, right? Who would choose to create their own stress?

    In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss the importance of challenge to a successful career. In other words, we’ll be talking about a positive form of stress relating to getting something done or achieving something new.

    We all have a part of ourselves that wants to contribute and make a difference. To accomplish something.

    It’s not enough to simply get by. If you aren’t challenging yourself to achieve, then you’re doing yourself a huge disservice.

    Overstated? Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Self Care. A Smart Career Move #3: Learning and Developing Yourself

    We are changing, growing, developing beings.

    It’s a fact. It’s a fact we neglect at our own expense.

    To take care of ourselves, we need to keep growing. To stay interested, engaged and feeling alive in our careers we need to keep developing ourselves.

    There’s nothing worse than the suffocating feeling of being stuck, bored or overwhelmed day in and day out, year after year.

    What is the alternative? In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss becoming a lifelong learner as a smart career move.

    Where is there room to learn something new? You might be able to simplify a complicated procedure. You might work on improving your leadership effectiveness. You might offer to help a respected colleague in order to learn from them.

    Far from being purely self-serving, taking care of oneself by learning and developing benefits everyone.

    Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Self-Care. A Smart Career Move #2: Staying Inspired and Motivated

    Ever try sprinting when exhausted? Doing your best when you don’t care? Going the extra mile when brimming with resentment?

    Then you know the importance of staying motivated and inspired in your efforts.

    This week Claudia and I discuss the value of motivation to our ability to show up and perform on a consistent basis.

    These are stressful times. How do you keep your spirits up at work?

    Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Self-Care. A Smart Career Move #1: Thriving Instead of Merely Surviving

    Shouldn’t I be focused on pleasing my boss if I want my career to advance?

    Not at the expense of your own well-being!

    Self care is neither arrogant entitlement nor antagonistic self-protection. Self-care is realizing that you’re the one who has to show up and perform every day, and you can’t do that well if you’re overwhelmed, overstressed, bored or afraid of losing your job.

    Claudia and I have started a new series discussing self care.

    Self Care. A Smart Career Move
    Week #1: Thriving Instead of Merely Surviving
    Week #2: Staying Inspired and Motivated
    Week #3: Learning and Developing Yourself
    Week #4: Challenging Yourself to Achieve
    Week #5: Keeping Yourself Centered and Attentive

    Listen in and join the conversation.

  • Listen In -> Job Hunting in a Difficult Market #4: Your Job Hunting Strategy

    You’ve made a decision.

    You are not going to let the climate of fear in the economy discourage your job hunt.

    When our ideal dream job is not available, what are our alternatives? Disappointment or devastation are not very helpful ways forward, even if they describe how we feel at the moment.

    This week Claudia and I discuss how to decide what to do “in the mean time.” Not just waiting out the recession in a lousy job, but using our transferable skills as building blocks on the way to a better position.

    What about an imperfect position where you can learn new skills? What about a less than ideal role where you can establish helpful connections?

    Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Job Hunting in a Difficult Market #3: Who Can Help Me Get There?

    Asking for help is awkward.

    It can feel like an imposition to ask our busy working friends, family and associates for help with our job hunt.

    Believe it or not, though, help is exactly what these people are glad to do. The people who know you are naturally disposed to want to help you.

    The key is making it as open and flexible as possible how people can help you. We need more ways to let people know what we’re looking for without limiting the form that help takes.

    In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss networking and interviews. Join the discussion as we figure out how to show up authentically and communicate to a variety of people what we’re looking for.

    Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Job Hunting in a Difficult Market #2: What Do I Bring To The Table?

    If one more person asks me what kind of position I’m looking for, I’ll scream. There’s no position on the organizational chart that’s a good fit for me.

    Do you find yourself in a similar predicament? The vocabulary of job descriptions, roles, functions, and career paths isn’t flexible enough for multi-faceted changing, developing people like you and me.

    So what do we bring to the professional table? In this week’s show, Claudia and I discuss how we can describe the unique set of skills, values, working styles, approaches to problem solving, etc. that distinguish us on the job.

    We have a lot to offer, but we need vocabulary and means for communicating that value to prospective employers.

    Listen in.

  • Listen In -> Job Hunting in a Difficult Market #1: Tackling Discouragement

    Just when it seems the economy couldn’t get worse, another set of precautionary lay-offs is announced on the evening news.

    Though fear fills the air and all panic around you, you show up calm, collected, and quietly confident.

    We begin a new series this week… Job Hunting in a Diffcult Market.

    How do you become that one who feels confident when discouragement lurks just behind the next job rejection?

    How do you keep your energy levels up when the job market feels overwhelming before you’ve even started?

    It’s not an easy environment to be in a job search. To pretend otherwise would be naive. But neither can we afford to be intimidated into inaction by what feels like long odds. What can we do? Where can we turn?

    Job Hunting in a Difficult Market

    Week 1: Tackling Discouragement
    Week 2: Resume Makeover
    Week 3: Networking Confidence
    Week 4: Your Job Hunting Strategy

    Listen in. You’ll both feel better about yourself and find yourself taking concrete steps toward your next job.

  • 100th Episode of Working Matters Podcast!! Join the fun!!!

    In this special 30-minute episode, Karl, Claudia and Jorge celebrate 100 episodes of Working Matters. Join the celebration and enjoy their no-agenda, no-holds barred banter about work, life and, of course, American Idol.

    There’s a place for serious discussion about work, careers, leadership and teams, but not this week!

    Thanks for your part in making Working Matters the insightful and helpful gathering place for talking about healthy working cultures that it is.

    Join the fun and listen in.