“’It’s the most wonderful time of the year…’ Really? Is it the most wonderful? Have you been outside? Seen the crowds? The traffic? Ever go through security at the airport in December? I’ll tell you one word that doesn’t come to mind: Wonderful…” – Jim Gaffigan

The most easy and rewarding skill to uplevel this holiday season?
Human Connectivity

A short and sweet holiday wish: that the crowds bless you.

I posted a couple short videos on LinkedIn last week (see them HERE), reminding us all that we can see the holiday crowds two ways:

• As reasons to hunker inward out of subconscious protectionistic fear
• As opportunities to explore the truth that “it’s a small world after all”

My invitation is to use the 6 weeks between now and New Years as an experimental Human Connectivity playground.

You simply never know who you’ll be rubbing elbows with as you move about your life amid a world of people more jovial, friendly and high-spirited than any other six weeks of the year.

In my bestselling book, Never Apply for a Job Again: Break the Rules, Cut the Line, Beat the Rest, I encourage folks to get outside their typical comfort zones of interaction and break rules such as:

Don’t Talk to Strangers

What? Who Said? Your mom when you were running around the grocery store talking to everyone and embarrassing her? There’s no better time to forget that rule than right now. There’s someone in front of you and someone behind you when you’re in line for that latte at the coffee shop. You never know if one of those people happens to be the sister-in-law of your next employer, client, or business partner. Talk to people! Everywhere! Anywhere! Become a COW: Citizen of the World.”
(Never Apply for a Job Again, Career Press, p. 32)

I invite you to practice Random Acts of Human Connectivity. And if you are considering a new career direction for yourself in the coming year, there’s no time like the holidays to do a little internal reflection and career resurrection.

Grab some time to review your past year’s career progress. Note the high and low points. Assess the fulfillment of your goals, passion and purpose.

And forget about resolutions: just take action during the holidays to level yourself up for where you want to be.

Speak to a career coach. (I know someone.) Make some long-overdue reconnections. And practice Random Acts of Human Connectivity.

Your stocking stuffer, AI (Aspiration Intelligence) enhanced challenge between now and New Years Eve, should you choose to accept it, is to meet, greet and find the holiday treat in every connection opportunity around you!

Meet and introduce yourself to 3 people a day you don’t know. What you REALLY don’t know is how amazed you’ll be when you realize who is around you.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell

CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

P.S. Want to treat yourself to a luxurious career gift in the New Year? Attend the 2025 inaugural CareerGuy Passion & Purpose Breakout!

“When all the dust is settled and all the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family and friends.” [Did you make some new ones during these crowded times?] – Barbara Bush “Sharing the holidays with other people, and feeling that you’re giving of yourself, gets you past all the commercialism.”  – Caroline Kennedy

The post December 11, 2024 – JOLT – The Wonderful Time to Skill Up Human Connectivity appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is a megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” – C.S. Lewis

If Pain Pushes Until Vision Pulls, Is It Time to Vision Up?

I recently heard someone say “I move at the speed of pain.”

It’s a sad but true comment on how, as humans, we tend to only move forward when we can absolutely no longer remain where we are:

• Our spouse or partner says, after many signs, that the gig is up and it’s over.
• The doctor’s diagnosis is that, if we continue doing what we’re doing (or not doing what we’re not doing), our health and life ahead is questionable.
• We go into work one morning and are shuffled unexpectedly into a room with our senior executive manager and the company’s chief people officer to be let go.

Over the years when I would participate in such massive corporate layoffs — as the helpful career guide waiting in a separate room to meet them after that layoff — I’d be amazed at how much folks had been paralyzed in pain.

Upon offering tissues to those noticeable caught off guard and upset at the news, I’d ask “So, did you ever consider that there may be a future for you outside of [X company]?”

Many would reply, while wiping away tears or blowing their nose, “Oh sure. I’ve been wanting to get out of here for years!”

Yet, here they sat, completely at the effect of their career movement rather than in charge of and causing it. A victim to the capricious and impersonal nature of corporate entities looking out for their own welfare.

Why aren’t professionals constantly looking out for their own welfare?

Because they don’t treat themselves like a business. They have an employee mindset vs a business owner mindset.

If you weren’t aware, let me break it to you gently, before you may one day learn it the hard way:

You OWN your own business. You always have. You simply lease out your employable assets.

And one thing any business owner must always do is constantly be on the lookout for the highest ROI while directing their resources in those directions.

What is a higher ROI? Of course, more compensation or benefits is often the case, but there are many other factors, depending on the person:

• Better work culture or management vision
• Work hours, location, and hybrid/virtual options
• A role more aligned with one’s passions
• Opportunities to expand in influence and/or responsibilities
• Opportunities to move back into former responsibilities one now misses

So, your AI (Aspiration Intelligence) enhanced challenge between now and New Years Eve, should you choose to accept it, is to take all of the factors mentioned above and create a VISION around them now!

Spend 15min per day simply sitting in quiet rumination of those ideas and, when your attention is more focused on your VISION vs your accepted and seemingly bearable pain, you’ll find yourself taking actions you would have never imagined.

One might be to talk with a career coach.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell

CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

P.S. Want to explore how pain can be pointed toward a passionate and purposeful career? Attend the upcoming CareerGuy Passion & Purpose Breakout!

“Your vision is the promise of what you shall one day be [do and have].” – James Allen

The post October 23, 2024 – JOLT – Are you moving at the speed of pain? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“Communication — the human connection — is the key to personal and career success.” – Paul J. Meyer

Answering Threats of Automation, AI and Empty Toilet Paper Shelves

The (m)asses are in charge.

It seems when uncertainty of a certain level occurs in modern times, the backside takes priority.

The port strikes initiated yesterday on the East and Gulf Coasts has toilet paper rolling off the shelves.

For sure, there’s reason to be concerned, as prices on everything moving through ports will undoubtedly increase, just in time for multipe end-of-year holidays.

There’s also reason to take note of the underlying issue at the heart of port workers’ demands: preventing automation from taking their jobs.

Now, I’m no economist, but I am a career tactician. And the undeniable truth is that, in “Night of the Living Dead” fashion, “they’re coming to get you Barbara.”

AI and all forms of automation are encroaching at an increasing pace. It might be delayed, but it won’t be stopped.

Here are just a few fun facts:

• 39% of HR managers currently use AI in the hiring process
• Not only can AI create an indepth profile of how you act and think based on your resume, but it can analyze a video interview and provide a hiring manager with a complete personality profile of you even before you speak with them (ye-bye Myers-Briggs and DISC!)
• A summer survey of US firms showed that 60% of them plan to incorporate AI within the next year to automate jobs that people now do.
• A similar 2020/2021 implementation of automation at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles (in my backyard) eliminated 572 full-time jobs.

So, what’s the answer? Usually in those zombie movies, after all the exhaustive fighting, humans prevail. But this isn’t a movie, and AI/automation will no doubt win.

However, in whatever quiver of career skills you’ve developed thus far, there’s a very special one that will always keep you above the Matrix of machinery nipping at your heels.

That mostly unmastered and undeveloped skill is Human Connection.

I like to call it Human Connectibility.

• Human Connectibility has you rise above the mass of lemmings submitting on LinkedIn when 100 have already applied before you.
• Human Connectibility has you able to reach through cyber zaps to have people actually get to know you vs bots simply scrolling you.
• Human Connectibility has you pierce into hidden circles of publicly unknown leadership opportunities vs being relegated to Big Brother public lists of open positions clawed at by throngs of job seekers
• Human Connectibility  creates bonds with folks whom YOU proactively choose to bring into your career consciousness (and you into theirs) vs being on the reactive side of simply hoping to hear from somebody, anybody you’ve applied to.
• Human Connectibility ensures your value as irreplaceble while so many other less skilled professionals fall into AI obsolesence

The old saying, “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em” applies here.

You can kvetch all you want about the AI/automation annexation of your career life, OR you can become a dedicated student of Human Connectibility which, once mastered, becomes a skill machines will never replace.

So, your AI (Aspiration Intelligence) enhanced mission, should you choose to accept it, is to begin learning the career skill of Human Connectibility to ensure your own life, liberty and pursuit of happy career.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell

CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

P.S. Want to explore how Human Connectibility shapes a passionate and purposeful career? Attend the upcoming CareerGuy Passion & Purpose Breakout!

“As more and more artificial intelligence is entering into the world, more and more emotional intelligence must enter into leadership.” – Amit Ray

 

The post October 2, 2024 – JOLT – Toilet Paper, Port Strikes & Human Connectibility appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“The best gift you can give yourself is the gift of possibility.” – Paul Newman

The Fall Theme: Have them Falling For You and All Over You

Landing your next dream job role is most fun when you don’t have to “land” anything at all, right?

Way more fun to have it fall in your lap.

“But,” you say, “how do I get the world of work to fall in line with that scenario? How do I become the leader organizations will fall head over heels for?”

First, you have to awaken from the spell you’ve fallen under that your career is something to think about only intermittently, only when you’ve either fallen out of grace or love with your current role, or you’re the fall guy/gal for the company when things are in free fall.

That’s what I call circumstantial career management, and it has you fall short of your potential, again and again.

You don’t manage your health or your relationship with your spouse that way do you? (If the answer is yes, I recommend you make some wholesale changes across the board.)

Healthy career management efforts are like regular gym visits or date nights: if they fall off the radar, you’re surely in for a fall.

Don’t ever fall asleep at the wheel thinking that you’re simply an “employee” of someone/something outside of yourself.

No, you own your own “business” and always have. You simply lease out your employable assets.

So, you want those assets always well defined and your availability for the right opportunities well known.

You won’t fall for every opportunity that comes knocking, and for sure you don’t want to appear needy. (Neediness weakens your value.)

But even happy as a lark in what you’re now doing, the movie “Indecent Proposal” proved that we all have a price.

And you can only fall into the sights of those with indecent proposals when you refuse to fall out of touch with those who’d be in a position to make you those “offers you can’t refuse.”

The point is: you have to be out there, getting known, being known, and knowing those you’d be smart to know so that you fall into the line of hire when special, unknown and hidden sweetheart opportunities are to be offered to someone. Why not you?

1. Fall into line in who you are.

2. Strategically fall into the mind of others on a regular and ongoing basis.

And you’ll find yourself being chased, because “relationships” is where everything falls into place.

So, your AI (Aspiration Intelligence) enhanced mission this fall, should you choose to accept it, is to fall in love enough with your dreams and aspirations that you make sure the world knows where your unique value chips fall. . .and they want them.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell

CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

P.S. Want some deeper insight into pointing your career more towards your dreams? Attend the upcoming CareerGuy Passion & Purpose Breakout!

“Holding knowledge makes you influential. When you have the answers, you gain reputation. Knowing the best ways to do something attracts the attention of pretty much everyone. In this sense, knowledge becomes authority because those who possess it provide a greater value than those who don’t.” – Tettra

 

The post August 28, 2024 – JOLT – Fall (don’t stumble or meander) Into Your Career Value appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

“You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of your success is found in your daily routine.” – John C. Maxwell

How will you touch the ocean?

Recently, I was “sharing” (spiritual euphemism for complaining) with a friend that I have so many plates spinning and projects projecting that I don’t get up from my desk much of the day.

I continued to share how unfortunate that is because the expansive beach can be seen right from my office window in all of its sandy blue glory.

Hey, it’s great to have many things, big and small, to put my attention on, yet this whole “quality of life” bird is always chirping on my shoulder that it wants to be fed.

Balance!

All the difference making in the world vs. Basic enjoyment of daily life

Balance!

All the money in the world vs. Happy, joyous and free creativity

Balance!

Getting shit done vs. Having fun!

I know it’s not a personal dilemma. And yet these are questions only I can answer very personally from my own unique speck of identifiable sand along the beachfront of humanity.

My friend suggested, “Why don’t you simply make a habit of touching the ocean every day?”

Can you identify with that as one of those quick quips of seeming little importance that we throw out to each other as humans? At first I did, and laughed it off.

But then I rethought: “Hey, without any extensive navel pondering or deep existential or ontological surgery on myself, what if I simply did that??”

The simple act of doing that on a daily basis would likely begin to shift the entire underlying values system I’m currently under the administration of!

I’ve heard that we can’t THINK ourselves into right ACTING, but we can ACT ourselves into right THINKING.

So, guess what I’m up to these days. . .for at least the 10 minutes it takes to cross the street, walk down the steps and stroll 40 yards of sand to the water?

What’s your version of touching the ocean?

Your AI (Aspiration Intelligence) enhanced mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find your own way to touch the ocean of your happy, joyous and free existence on a daily basis.

Think differently, play better.

Radically,

Darrell

CareerGuy and Back Forty Freedom Flier

“Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do.” – Sean Covey

The post March 20, 2024 – JOLT – One Daily Habit for an Ocean of Possibilities appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

An Ounce of Suggestion is Worth a Pound of Resolution

1. Create “stop-doing” lists and begin subtracting items from, rather than adding items to, my never-ending growth aspirations. I can find at least a few things to drop that no longer serve me.

2. Create three-person book or listening groups. I actually did this a couple of years ago when The Back Forty first came out: only 3 people. I agree that there’s an intimacy available with a small group that can get dropped when groups becomes less personal and accountable. If you’d like to hear about the reading group coming this spring that will dive into the now award-winning The Back Forty book, let me know.

3. Take a digital sabbath each week. This one will require a LOT of mindfulness on my part! But, then again, that’s the point.

4. Stop asking “What if?” and instead ask “What now?” This is so aligned with the message of The Back Forty that I wish I had coined that phrase! My own growth continues to be in dropping the woulda/coulda/shouldas that still emerge in a past-addicted mind and focusing on what I can experiment with now!

5. Live the 80/20 rule in pursuit of my goals, which is what inspired my message above. Slow and steady support of my goals by consistent and extended daily suggestions rather than only immediate and intense drive will have me grow beyond the hot and passionate moment of “resolution.”

The post Feb 7, 2024 – JOLT – Suggestion vs Resolution – A 2024 Restart appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

The Million Dollar Soft Skill That Trumps AI

“Hi, this is the X [Company] recruiting bot, affectionately known as Hedda Hunter. Congratulations! You have been chosen from 133,692 resumes submitted to record a brief initial video interview. Please press the button below to answer the questions included in this email. Be sure your camera and audio are working properly as we do not allow retakes.
Note: Please do not respond or attempt to follow up. If I decide to pass you on to my supervising bot, Slim Pickens, you will be notified. Don’t bot us, we’ll bot you.”

The post Jan 17, 2024 – JOLT – Your Million Dollar Soft Skill for 2024 appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

Looking Differently

Let me acknowledge upfront the challenge I’ve personally experienced in putting out a newsletter over the last several months when there’s so much tragedy happening in the world. My heart goes out to everyone experiencing the heartbreaking impacts of these times. For those of us blessed enough to contribute through our careers to making the world a better place in our own unique way, perhaps those careers can support contributions to others in need wherever they may be.

The quote above, and “looking differently” applies not only to problems we face in the world today but also the problem of personal career evolvement, whether it be upleveling our roles or growing our business.

For those wanting to grow, looking for that next career move or business self-expression the same way everyone else does has you appear just like everyone else: an indistinct commodity.

In the job seeking world, it’s being just one in a pile of resumes. In the business development world, it’s just a smile-and-dial “me too!” effort. (Consider me too! Consider me too!)

In job seeking, we all grew up inside the resume/application/interview/I-need-them-more-than-they-need-me career model. Basically, we learned to “spray (our resume all over the place) and pray (that it gets noticed).”

This kind of activity is based on a false power-dynamic premise which holds that the company is in the catbird seat and the employee is in the place of need.

Maybe that was true when you first began your career, when you simply needed a bit of experience and to land a paycheck.

However, for more senior professionals and veteran executives, it’s important to graduate from that indistinct-commodity paradigm because your thought-leadership — and even “statesmanship” — can have you in the catbird seat. . .IF you look differently.

This goes for business building as well when you replace “smile and dial” with creating value-based relationships first.

What’s required for atypical career expansion is “a different lens and a new approach.”

Warren Buffett is a big proponent of taking a contrarian approach. He says to look and see what most others are doing and to do the opposite.

• Most job seekers treat their resume like the Holy-Grail key to their job search
• Most others are looking to see what positions are posted as available and applying to them.
• Most others are using LinkedIn to see who they know in a company and asking them to float their resume over to hiring managers
• Most others are trying to “network” while wearing on their sleeves (and LinkedIn profile) a badge of “Willing to work”, “Need to work” or “God help me, I need a job!”
• And most business owners are out “networking” as well, to uncover needle-in-a-haystack openings to contribute

God bless everyone looking to land their next role or build their business.

Yet, a Buffett-esque approach to what most others are doing would have you, as the seasoned, stripes-earned, senior leader play the career-shift or business building game in a much cooler and demure way than how “most others” do.

That way is to turn the table on organizations in your areas of fascination and interest to become the belle of the ball, having them chasing you to get on your dance card versus the other way around.

The keys to that approach are:

• Personal Branding
• Thought Leadership
• A Backdoor Approach to Career Expansion

As you begin to close out 2023, take stock of where you are now in terms of joyful career self-expression. If it’s anywhere short of fascinated and passionate, consider 2024 as an opportunity to “look differently” at both what’s possible for you as well as how you’ll go about finding a sweet-spot career change which is not only a perfect fit but you’re, literally, “the only one for the job.”

It’s called aspirational intelligence, and you can grow it.

The post Dec 7, 2023 – JOLT – 2024 Can be Different if You Look Differently appeared first on CareerGuy.com.

Fire in the Fall Belly

Traditionally, there are a couple major times of the year when folks crank up their aspirational intelligence and think bigger for themselves, their career and a purposeful path forward:

• September (Fall), when (I suppose) because kids go back to school parents are able to focus on themselves a bit more, and
• January (Winter-cum-Spring), when New Years resolutions and the ritual of clean-slate possibilities give everyone a boost to aspire greater for themselves

Yes, there will be a lot more activity — and competition — in the coming month or so as folks get situated back at their desk to reevaluate their career situation after summer distractions. Being smarter than the average bear and positioning yourself as uniquely different than the crowd can net you better than average results.

But, even beyond the next couple flurried months of upleveled career quandaries, there will come a time toward the end of the year that will truly be the celestial “Holy Grail” of cosmic career elevation possibilities: the Holidays.

When most will figure that “nothing happens during the holidays” and check out, those who’ve positioned themselves uniquely for all the natural elbow-rubbing that happens during the 6 weeks between Thanksgiving and New Years will cash in on backdoor relationships that will be ripe for the pickings.

So, why talk about those career-shift best-of-times now vs November? Because it takes preparation to be ready to capitalize on such a windfall, along with a whole new mindset of non-traditional career expansion methods to be grokked.

Therefore, if you have the fire-in-the-belly to affect a conscious career shift before 2023 shows up in your rear-view mirror, here is your Fall mission (should you choose to accept it):

• Get clear of your unique super-powers of success. Not simply your “skills”, but the patterns that are embedded in every successful situation you’ve touched.
• Use that success-pattern awareness to discover the unique personal “brand” that you are. This sets you up as someone needing nothing, yet vibrating an awareness of Self that most never realize.
• Flying the flag of that personal brand, learn how to expand your relationships into circles around your areas of current passionate interest. This isn’t what most call “networking” but, rather, coming from no need but the simple desire to explore. People sense an authentic desire of exploration, and open the doors they wouldn’t when someone needs a job.

Tips for Transition (of an AI variety)

Here’s a prompt that you can use to direct ChatGPT (or similar models) to provide information about a particular industry:

“Provide a comprehensive introduction to [specific industry name]. Cover its history, major players, current trends, future outlook, and any notable challenges and opportunities.”

Replace “[specific industry name]” with the name of the industry you’re interested in. For example, if you’re interested in the automobile industry, the prompt would be:

“Provide a comprehensive introduction to the automobile industry. Cover its history, major players, current trends, future outlook, and any notable challenges and opportunities.”

By using this prompt, you’ll be able to gain a broad understanding of the chosen industry.

Here’s a tool to incorporate into your online meetings:

tl:dv – https://tldv.io/ – Records and transcribes Zoom and Google meet meetings.

Automated meeting transcription ensures that no crucial details are lost, allowing you to revisit important discussions to access and review content at your own pace. It transforms verbal exchanges into searchable text, making it easier to locate specific topics or decisions. This ensures that information remains consistent and accessible, fostering improved communication and reducing potential misunderstandings or oversights.

The post August 16, 2023 – JOLT – Is the fire in your belly for Fall? appeared first on CareerGuy.com.