This Friday on the Higher Ed Life and Careers Show, Life and Career Coach Sean Cook will be joined by special guest Andrew Henck who is tweeting ideas & thoughts on leadership, nonprofits, higher ed, politics, social media from a Gen Y perspective as @MillennialTweet and blogs about them on http://themillennialjourney.wordpress.com We’ll be talking about a variety of college transition issues, his blog, and the importance of the “bookends” of the college experience…transitioning to college from high school, and out to the wider world upon graduation.
I’ll also be talking a little about mind-mapping and revisiting last week’s episode with Mark Dykeman of the ThoughtWrestling blog. Earlier this week, I announced a mind-map-your-job-search contest to get your ideas on how you could use mind-mapping to plan your job search or your long-term career plan. I’ve decided to extend the contest due to low participation so far. You can sketch out your plan on a napkin and scan it in, do a Prezi, do a document, or something else. Do it your way, and send me the document or a link to wherever you have it posted on the web. I’m looking forward to seeing what ideas people have out there, and giving away a copy of Mark’s excellent e-book: Unstuck, Focused and Organized (affiliate link.)
I also plan to do a little catch up. I had chosen people to honor in September and October for my “Who-Do” awards, to recognize them for doing great things for higher ed and student affairs. But I never got around to announcing the names of the people I had selected or tell you why. So I am going to do so on the show. I am sure you are all on the edge of your seats!
Lastly, I am going to discuss a little about where the blogs and coaching programs are heading in the next few months, and how I am hoping to tweak my business model so that I can offer better content, more services, and keep costs for paid services in line with demand. I have a few ideas that I think are pretty interesting, and I’d love to get your thoughts.
Please listen in from the episode page or click on the episode badge below. You can call in to ask questions or make comments to (347) 989-0055 or via Skype click-to-talk by pressing the Blue Skype “S” logo once the show is on the air.
Have you ever had a busy time, when you knew you couldn’t afford to miss a step? You knew it was coming, and you made a plan to juggle all your responsibilities, and you were ready, in the words of Project Runway’s infamous Tim Gunn, to just “make it work.”
And then, despite all the planning, thinking things out from different angles, and even planning the contingencies, you trip over some unexpected change in terrain….
Boom.Flutter.Fall.
Flat on your face. Ouch-ey! And you wonder whether you should even bother to get up.
Fall has been kinda like that for me, and I’m finally at a point where I need to start over, focus on some core priorities, and let some other things go (or delegate them out). This week, I’m going to tell you what I’ve been doing with my time, and ask you to help me prioritize a bit by letting me know what you’d like to see.
Part 1: The Blog(s)
Readership was pretty consistent last spring during the “placement conference season” and through the summer. July was the best month for traffic, probably in part due to the “down time” many of us experience right before the August/September madness. Since August readership has been down, and I’ve been struggling to come up with fresh content, in part because I am juggling several other projects now, including a part-time gig with Wesleyan College down in Macon, GA, a hybrid coaching course for placement season, some webinars, some guest posts for other blogs and web sites, and the beginnings of some e-books and other “informational products.” I also helped plan a half-marathon.
I thought I had some good plans for this fall, and a good idea of how to execute them. But I got stuck in a few details, distracted by other projects (who knew planning a half-marathon would require so much work?) and then thrown off by a few life events (both cars robbed in my own driveway a couple of weeks back.) So my blogs are off-track, my business has taken a back-seat to a race, my office is a mess, my schedule is full, and there are days I look back over my shoulder and say “where did the day go, and what do I have to show for it?”
I’ve been teetering between the two big options lately: giving up and bucking up. When I set out to do this, I had idealistic reasons in mind, and some pie-in-the-sky ideas about how I’d turn my interests and idealism into a sustainable business and lifestyle. The reality is that I’ve been stumbling through some of it, and like anyone, I could use some feedback and direction. So I’m turning to you. I’ve decided not to quit (at least not yet).
What do you think I should do to mold this idealistic vision of helping higher ed job seekers into a sustainable business model?
What interests you?
What would you be willing to pay for?
What do you want?
And what do you need?
Last year, I did a good job of building up some partnerships and getting guest writers. In July I had a few, and it was the best month for readership for both HigherEdLifeCoach.Com and HigherEdCareerCoach.Com. Many of my regular guest bloggers have started new jobs or had other significant changes in their lives. I’m working with a couple to find time to “get back on the horse,” but I’m also going to bring in some new contributors, so the content can be fresh, and so new voices can find a platform. As I do, I could use your input to help me prioritize any changes or updates to the blogs.
As a reader:
Which past guest posts have you enjoyed the most?
Which contributors?
What topics do you want to read more about?
And if you are a writer or a fellow coach, what would you like to contribute?
Should we have more video and audio posts, slideshows, resource lists, tips and tricks?
Do you like book reviews, product reviews, or “wish list” types of posts?
How often should we have new posts? I had been shooting for 2-3 per week.
Please share some ideas that will help improve the blog, either by commenting below or by sending feedback to sean@higheredcareercoach.com.
There are some important periods of the academic year to pay attention to when you work in higher ed. Everyone acknowledges that the busiest times…welcome week, exam week, and closing for the summer… can eat up your time and energy. But it’s equally important to pay attention to the times which are slower-moving, because they sometimes represent “the calm before the storm”
When I worked in Residence Life, I always had a mid-semester slog starting around October. People were settling into routines, events were happening here and there, and my calendar would feel pretty set, with regular committee meetings, 1-on-1 meetings with supervisees, and loads and loads of busy work. It was always around this time, too, when we’d start to see roommate and neighbor conflicts pick up, alcohol poisonings increase, and psychological issues rear their ugly head.
This period between early October and Thanksgiving always felt to me like wading through molasses. When this feeling hits you (and it will, sometime between now and Thanksgiving, I guarantee it!), you may do one of two things…bury yourself in work so that you feel busy and productive, or avoid work like the plague, put off unpleasant tasks as long as you can, and just hope to ride it out until break. Neither of these methods should be mistaken for work/life balance.
Times like these call on you to stop ad pay attention to how you are balancing your priorities. If you don’t, it can be like a slow, smoldering burn, ready to flash into a fireball at any moment, and leave you ashen, grey, or even burnt to a cinder.
So do yourself a favor: Pay attention to how you are spending your time, and find some time for yourself. If you don’t insist on work/life balance, you won’t have any!
What do you do to make it through your mid-semester slog? Share your ideas, questions and thoughts in the comments below.
Sean Cook, Certified Life Purpose & Career Coach
Sean Cook is a certified Life Purpose and Career Coach based in Athens, GA. Before completing his certification from the Life Purpose Institute, he earned his M.Ed. in Counseling and Guidance Services from Clemson University, and spent over 15 years various student affairs roles in higher education. He specializes in working with college students, recent graduates, and higher ed professionals, and acts as publisher for HigherEdCareerCoach.Com and HigherEdLifeCoach.Com. You can listen to his periodic podcast, the Higher Ed Life and Careers Show, at 11 a.m. Eastern on Fridays on BlogTalkRadio.com. Look for his upcoming contribution to SelfGrowth.Com’s new book “101 Great Ways to Enhance Your Career” later this Fall.
Things have been really busy lately and so today we did not have a podcast. I will try to return next week and start getting on a more regular schedule again. I am looking for guests, but have a few tentative topics lined up. Here are a few quick updates on some things worth checking out in the meantime. Thanks for visiting!
I found a great new web service called paper.li that lets you enter your Twitter username or a hashtag or a Twitter list and it automagically makes an online “newspaper” out of the links shared on those streams. I set one up for my @hiedcareercoach account, and for the hashtags #sachat and #saplacement. Check them out.
I never announced that I did choose LeaderShape for recognition for the August Who-DO award. I am going to finally get my act together in the next week to post a “who-do” award page and to actually send out the awards to the recipients so far. I plan to announce the September Who-Do next week. There won’t be a poll this time, because I have already chosen who to recognize. Polls will continue in the near future.
I am planning another hybrid coaching program to begin soon, and go through the placement season. I’m collecting information on people who might be interested through a new list. If you are interested in learning more, sign up here.
Look for more information about webinars on resumes, networking and job interviewing soon.
This week, the Student Affairs Twitter Chat (#sachat) passed a milestone. Now one year into its existence, it has changed how many student affairs professionals engage in conversations and professional development. I’ve been a member of the community surrounding this chat and the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog during this formative year, so I’d like to share my thoughts on how being involved in this community changed my life.
What communities are you engaged in online?
Are you using social media to engage other professionals and to network? Is it making you a better professional?
Last Monday, I posted over on higheredlifecoach.com about how successful students seek help. I suggested that students familiarize themselves with resources available to them on campus early so that they know where the appropriate offices are if they need them in the future. When I was working out some of the details about my post with Sean, he suggested that I might also give some ideas to higher ed staff and administrators about how we can help encourage help-seeking behaviors in our students.
I don’t claim to be an expert on this subject, and I really would just like to start the discussion about setting the tone to encourage students (and perhaps even other faculty or staff) to ask for assistance when needed.
I started my job as an academic advisor at a new institution two years ago. When I was interviewed, I remember being asked how comfortable I was asking questions of others. As with most jobs or new institutions, there was a huge learning curve to overcome before I really felt confident meeting and talking about academic-related issues with students. I didn’t know where buildings are (I still have to refer to the campus map pretty frequently), I didn’t know the specifics of the curriculum, and I didn’t know what additional resources were available to our students. My office trained me on the curriculum throughout my first few months on the job, but much of the training about additional resources was left to me. I looked at every web site on our university’s “For Students” page. I attended brown-bag lunch presentations by a variety of people from across campus. Some of my colleagues and I set up appointments with various offices to get more information about the services they provided. It was a long (and ongoing) process to gather information that I knew my students needed, but that I didn’t necessarily have.
I am a full-time employee and I don’t have all of the information. I spend 40+ hours per week helping students, and yet I don’t have anywhere near all the answers. So how or why do we expect our students to know where they should be finding appropriate resources? At this point in my life, I have at least become comfortable with asking for help or for the answer to a question if I don’t know, but some of our students haven’t gotten there yet. For some, this is the first time that they may have encountered difficulty, either with their academics, personal life, or emotions. If they haven’t had to ask for help before, it can be a challenging thing to do, especially because first it means that they have to admit they don’t have it quite all together.
Our campuses need to set the tone that it is okay, and actually encouraged, to ask for help. Perhaps that means launching a campus-wide “Just Ask!” campaign, with posters highlighting campus resources, YouTube videos with plugs from the university president or high-profile student athletes, and a Twitter account to accept and respond to questions. A campaign of that size likely would take a lot of coordinating, but it could be really effective in the long-run. If you are looking for ways of encouraging help-seeking behaviors in the shorter term, here are some of my ideas:
Encourage students to find at least one person (faculty, staff, administration) on campus who they feel comfortable talking to, even about difficult issues. That one person might not be able to answer all of the student’s questions or solve all of his/her problems, but would at least be likely to be able to provide referrals to others who can continue to help.
Find out what resources are available to students on your campus. If possible, know the office hours and location, and perhaps even the name of someone in that office.
Keep pamphlets or fliers of available resources easily accessible to students. If there isn’t space in the office or on your desk, at least have them handy so that you could give one to a student if necessary.
If you don’t know the answer or the appropriate office to refer to, ask someone else. If students see that even faculty and staff are willing to ask others, they may gain some courage to do the same in the future.
What have others done to encourage help-seeking on your campus? Please share your ideas or programs!
As Stacy Oliver pointed out in her blog post last week on the Student Affairs Collaborative Blog, we are often afraid of asking for help because there might not be someone there to help. We all know that we work in higher education to support students and that if a student asks for help, we will be there. Now we just need to figure out how to make sure that the students all know that!
Sarah Howard is in her third year of academic advising at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She advises students with majors in natural sciences, mathematics, and pre-health fields. Sarah completed her bachelor’s degree at Ashland University in Ohio with a double major in English and mathematics and a religious studies minor; she also holds a Master of Arts degree from Bowling Green State University in college student personnel. Her favorite colors are blue and orange. She can be found online at @howardsj or her blog at http://undecidedlyadvising.blogspot.com
Work with Sean. I help higher ed professionals take control of their careers with tailored services including resume and CV development, LinkedIn profile optimization and networking strategy, interview coaching, and one-on-one career guidance.
This Friday on the Higher Ed Life and Careers Show, Life and Career Coach Sean Cook will be joined by special guest Andrew Henck who is tweeting ideas & thoughts on leadership, nonprofits, higher ed, politics, social media from a Gen Y perspective as @MillennialTweet and blogs about them on http://themillennialjourney.wordpress.com We’ll be talking about a variety of college transition issues, his blog, and the importance of the “bookends” of the college experience…transitioning to college from high school, and out to the wider world upon graduation.
