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“Creating Successful Leaders”

Tag Archives: Career Coach Advice

September 11, 2013 The Best Learners Keep Their Minds Open

Image via Maurice Kerrigan

With school back in session, you’ve probably seen kids with backpacks and lunchboxes waiting for the bus, or noticed the huge “back to school” section at your local Target, or maybe you’ve been one of those brave souls frantically rushing your kids out the door each morning. Whatever it may be, it’s likely September has reminded you of your own time in school, be it grade school, high school, or college, wherein your sole job was to learn.

It’s easy to slip into the mindset that that was then, this is now. We had school for learning, now it’s time for applying that knowledge in the real world. While this is true, adhering too strongly to such thinking can actually hinder your ability to excel. Because the world is continuously changing, we must embrace a mentality of continuous learning, and the way we pull that off is by keeping an open mind.

I know, “keeping an open mind” is about as cliché as it gets. It’s a phrase that can mean a whole heap of things and rarely gets questioned. So what do I mean when I say we must keep an open mind?

1. Put flexibility into practice. Be willing to change plans on the fly. Try out other people’s ideas. Don’t assume you know the answer right away.

2. Self-assessment is key. Are listening to others? Have you applied what you’ve most recently learned in any meaningful way?

3. There is no perfect way to do things. Strategies and methods need to be adapted to each new situation. The best learners use their environments to come up with a concoction of many different methods, tailored to the situation at hand.

4. Change is the only constant. And this is okay. Too often we wage a losing battle trying to control everything around us. You don’t need to fight that battle.

Don’t get entrenched in a one size fits all approach. You’ll only become frustrated. Be willing to listen, experiment and place yourself in the firing line of new experiences.

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August 28, 2013 Learning Agility: Diving In Even When You’re Scared

When learning something new, we instinctively keep it close and secret until we feel confident that we’ve got it down pat. Usually this is because we feel embarrassed by our clumsiness with new skills. However, we can’t learn until we apply our skills, which means a bit of screwing up. You’ll find that even though screwing up might be hard on your ego, it’ll increase the rate at which you learn and respond in unique situations.

This is because of a special nerve in our bodies, called the vagus nerve. As Christopher Bergland explains in this article on Psychology Today, “When people say ‘trust your gut’ they are in many ways saying, ‘trust your vagus nerve.’ Visceral feelings and gut-instincts are literally emotional intuitions transferred up to your brain via the vagus nerve.”

Bergland goes on to say that we can teach ourselves to respond positively to the “gut-feeling” we get from the vagus nerve by being in tune with the loop between our bodies and minds and using this awareness to our advantage. Instead of choking under pressure, which comes from a negative response from the vagus nerve, we can control its signals and stay calm under stress.

Now, I’m not saying that you should go out and look for the most stressful situation you can find and purposely make your learning experience as intense as possible. Many people thrive under pressure, while others do much better using more gradual methods, and I understand that. I do want to encourage you to push the limits you think you have when you’re taking on something new, because:

1. Most of us underestimate ourselves.

2. Most of us overestimate the thing we’re learning.

3. You won’t really know how true either of the above are until you go out and see for yourself.

Examples of diving in:

-Giving a presentation using material you’re new to. Of course, don’t do this at your next big, job-on-the-line presentation, but do try out new materials, approaches and styles when you have a less career-defining presentation.

-Teaching yourself a skill that is outside your normal set of skills. If you’re a numbers wiz, try out some of the good literature. If you’re an extravert, try meditation. If you’re shy, try the above suggestion!

-Wearing your mistakes as badges, knowing that each falter invariably pushes you closer to mastery.

How do you deal with handling pressure? How does it impact your ability to learn?

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August 21, 2013 Are We Too Hooked On Our Devices?

The other day, as I sat in bumper-to-bumper traffic and having just finished a day of seemingly nonstop phone, e-mail and text message exchanges, a story on NPR came on that hit home for me.

NPR’s website has a neat little feature: it stores all the stories it reports throughout the day in transcript form, so if you know the day and general time you heard something interesting on the air, you can always revisit the stories later. Which is exactly what I did.

Here is the story, which covers a company called Digital Detox that offers retreats geared around being completely unplugged from phones and laptops. Not only that, the retreat center detailed in the story has had full attendance at $350 a person.

Why is there such demand for retreats away from screens? Well, the story interviews Digital Detox co-founder, Levi Felix, who sees this as a sign of an increased awareness of digital devices’ intrusiveness. “People are feeling like something’s not right here,” he is quoted as saying.

The story hit home for me personally because I’ve had a love-hate relationship with technology for years. On one hand, the ability to text anyone at anytime is convenient, sure, but what about the flip side of this? What if you’re the one being contacted at all hours of the day? How do you deal with the daily bombardment of communications from all angles?

I think that setting up parameters for yourself in regards to time spent plugged in can help keep you grounded and sane. It’s similar to the skill of saying no. In the same way you need to take care of yourself first by not overextending yourself for others, you also must be able to turn off the phone, guilt-free.

What’s more, we need to stay present and engaged in the moment in order to live fully. Phones and Facebook take us out of our present moment, and too much time online can negatively distort your perception of yourself as well as take away from the amazing world right in front of you.

What do you think? What have been your ways of managing the barrage of online information?

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