Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Category: Working Matters

  • Quote to Consider: Integrity Check

    quote-to-consider“It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those we intend to commit.”

    Josh Billings (1818–1885)

  • Listen In -> Planning Yourself Out of Career Suicide #3: Criteria

    After opening up so many possibilities by exploring clues last week, we now need a way to make choices. We need to go somewhere in particular instead of everywhere in general.

    What makes work meaningful and rewarding to you?

    The answer to that question is different for each of us.

    You may be looking for a particular role. You may want to fund a certain lifestyle. You may want to continually expand your responsibilities. You may want to leave work at the office at 5:00 p.m. You may be drawn to a certain industry.

    The key is to be able to articulate (to yourself) your criteria for making your next decision.

    Join Claudia and I as we discuss the value of knowing your criteria for making career decisions and the risks of not doing so.

    Listen in.

  • Quote to Consider: Leadership Reimagined (2500 Years Ago)

    quote-to-consider“Go to the people. Learn from them. Live with them. Start with what they know. Build with what they have. The best of leaders when the job is done, when the task is accomplished, the people will say we have done it ourselves.”

    Lao Tzu

  • Listen In -> Planning Yourself Out of Career Suicide #2: Clues

    Clues instead of conclusions.

    When looking for a way out of a room with no light, is it more effective to grope around blindly until we find the exit or to pull out the key-chain flashlight in our pocket?

    A key-chain flashlight is not a very significant source of light. But bringing a small amount of light into a situation is actually far more helpful than continuing to grope blindly.

    In our second conversation about avoiding career suicide Claudia and I explore how to shed additional light on our job situation by looking for clues. Looking for clues opens up options. Drawing conclusions closes options off.

    While we eventually need to make a single choice, thinking that way at the beginning of the process in actually counter-productive. Watch the world open up when you begin by looking for clues.

    Listen in.

  • Loving Monday: Hey, I Recognize You!

    loving_mondaySince I’ve stopped commuting across town to work, I find myself being recognized at my regular hang-outs.

    For me it’s coffee and a writing schedule that form the basis of my most regular stops.

    baristaBut it’s the delight of being recognized that I want to focus on this morning.

    What a great way to start the week. Even if the smile I receive is merely their joy at getting yet another $1.50 from me, I love it.

    Given that this is Los Angeles, and the odds of running into a familiar face are close to zero… the gift of recognition is nothing to be sneezed at.

    Life is busy, and it is easy to feel invisible as your boss gets wrapped up in outcomes and deadlines, your co-workers are overwhelmed with their own workload, and your clients don’t care who handles their problem as long as it gets handled.

    So it can be quite the gift—dare I use the word, “blessing”—to be recognized… even when out and about amongst relative strangers in town.

    What are your regular haunts? A coffee house, a donut shop, a grocery store, an office supply warehouse, an electronics store?

    If you’re feeling isolated and anonymous in the city, a small change can make a big difference. Today I’m recommending routine and repetition. Breed familiarity with repeated exposure.

    Ask your barista how their day is going. Discover the pleasure of being recognized.

  • Quote to Consider: Criteria for Quitting

    quote-to-consider“Exert your talents, and distinguish yourself, and don’t think of retiring from the world, until the world will be sorry that you retire.”

    Samuel Johnson

  • Listen In -> Planning Yourself Out of Career Suicide #1: Avoid the Coffin

    It’s bad enough when we feel like our job is killing us. But what if we’re stepping into the coffin and closing the lid ourselves?

    We begin a new series this week on avoiding career suicide. Too dramatic a description?

    Not once we realize that we’re never as stuck as we feel.

    One of the reasons we feel stuck is because we believe the only alternative available is to make a major job change. Get out of our current situation altogether.

    Job change, though, doesn’t need to be an all or nothing decision. Instead searching for a huge life-altering solution to our situation, what if we were simply looking for clues that would suggest alternatives?

    Join this freeing conversation as we learn together how to explore alternatives instead of jump to conclusions.

    Planning Yourself Out of Career Suicide
    Week #1: Overview
    Week #2: Clues
    Week #3: Criteria
    Week #4: Structure
    Week #5: Process

    Listen in.

  • Loving Monday: Hoping to Believe in Myself?

    loving_mondayI wake up some mornings liking myself more than other mornings.

    Today is one of those days. I’ve been thinking, “Man, you are one clever, generous, good-looking young man.”

    Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration. But you know what I mean.

    confidence-notThe first voices of the day are ones where I believe in me, trust myself, and know that in some yet unknown way it is important that I show up today.

    We all know the other days. The days where the first voices are second-guessing, accusing, and/or mocking. As much as these doubting voices set us back, undermine our confidence and sabotage our spirits, the believing voices propel us forward.

    So do we simply hope to wake up well each morning? Opening our eyes—oh so slowly—in order to get a sneak peek at whether we’re surrounding by believing “friends” or the defeatist “others.” Is there anything we can do to foster the affirming, centered self-perception and stave off the haunting suspicions that would diminish us?

    What do you think?

  • Job Search Tip -> Distinct or Odd?

    MeaningFull-CareersDistinct or odd?

    The connotation is everything.

    Being distinct adds to our value. Being odd detracts.

    Being distinct means that you bring something to the table that no one else does. Being odd means that you bring something to the table that no one else wants.

    DistinctOur distinctives are attributes of which we are proud, aware, and take care to maximize. Our oddities are attributes about which we remain silent, are often unaware, and pop up when we least expect them.

    When looking for work, we want to be well versed in and comfortably articulate about our distinctives. These unique attributes add value to the working community and increase our attractiveness as a candidate.

    Your distinctness may just be what separates you from the competition and gets you the job.

    Try this exercise. Write out as many of your personal attributes as you can think of. Keep writing until you’re exhausted and then add twenty more.

    Then go through the list and circle the ten that relate best to the specific job for which you are applying. Finally, of those ten, highlight the one to three attributes that might be unique to you or are specialties of yours.

    Now you have a few specific attributes to talk about with a prospective employer. They may turn out to be distinct attributes. They may turn out to be what distinguishes you from the other applicants.

    Your distinctives make you attractive. Your oddities… well… let’s just say, focus on the positive.

  • Quote to Consider: Jump On In

    quote-to-consider“The fact is, that to do anything in the world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can.”

    Robert Cushing