by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Jun 22, 2011 | Career Skills, Higher Education, life purpose, Site News
Over the last five years, I’ve experienced a convergence of events in my personal life that drove me to consider the need to change my circumstances and with it, hopefully my personal and professional destiny. First I became a father. Then I learned that I have a neurological disorder, which affects my mobility and is aggravated by stress. Then I had a year where my whole staff hated me, and I couldn’t dig myself easily out of the personal and professional hole I found myself in. Then some things changed, and I was able to do so. Others were not able to, and chose to move on.
I took the next few years to redeem myself and to redouble my efforts to be an effective supervisor and mentor, and I feel that I was able to do so. I began researching options that would allow me to move on from Penn State and the first option was a doctoral program at the University of Georgia. I was invited to interview, but not admitted to the program. What little feedback I received amounted to the fact that I had expressed more practical than theoretical interests. It hurt at first, but I was eventually able to glean a lesson from the experience, move past it, and to start getting more specific about what other options I wanted to research.
It was a blessing in disguise, because in that exploration, I realized that my interests do not lie in the direction of teaching student development theory. I’m more interested in helping professionals understand effective practice, and effective professional involvement, so they can move forward in their careers with authenticity of purpose, and have satisfying (and balanced) careers and lives. Coming to Athens also made me realize how much I always wanted to live there, and how much better it would be for my family if I moved closer to both my parents in South Carolina, and my partner’s parents in Florida.
When I decided on pursuing coaching as a career choice, I initially wanted to do life and transition coaching for college students, and transition coaching for their parents, because I had been really troubled by Millennial students and their helicopter parents. I also had an interest in doing career coaching for persons working in higher ed, because I could have used it going into the field, and later as a supervisor and member of the central management staff for Residence Life at Penn State. I know for a fact that many of my staff (students and professionals) needed it, but that as a supervisor, I could only give them so much, because of the power differential involved in supervision. I believed that, as an experienced professional with a lot of great experience as a supervisor, as a candidate, and a member of search and interview committees, I had a unique set of gifts to put to work, and that by doing so, I could make a difference in the careers of many people. So I rolled the dice, left my job, and gambled that I would be able to pull together these convergent ideas into a coherent business concept.
In my mind, I have all the pieces tied together and it makes sense. But I haven’t explained it so well, and it’s clear that I need to, so that people won’t get confused or stay confused, because it’s not enough to explain the convergence, you have to explain the separate ideas before you show how they all come together. As a storyteller, I’ve always understood that. So I’m going to back up a little bit, as I have been doing so far this week, and tell you, as best I can, my story.
I’m not doing this so just to talk about myself. In putting forth my life examples, I’m hoping that you will relate, and see, in your circumstances, some parallels, and find some lessons you can apply to your life and career.
In every story, there are lessons worth finding and questions worth asking. And we can definitely learn more if we have some conversations. So please comment freely and share your story, ask questions, and tell me and your fellow readers your story and more about the points of convergence where you exist, operate, and feel most comfortable.
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Jun 15, 2011 | Career Skills, Coaching, life purpose, Negotiation, Site News
In my last post, I talked about game theory and how it informs my view of careers and business, and concluded that I need to do a better job explaining what game I am playing.
Let’s get to it!
If I have a game, it’s called Putting Your Purpose to Work. The point of the game is lifting people up to live according to their purpose, and creating conversations that help organizations change in ways that allow them to do so. Specifically, I am doing this because I know it is needed, and that people like me need it.
I work primarily with educators because we (and society) routinely undervalue what we do, and we normalize it by accepting conventional wisdom and ways of doing things that are just plain wrong. The rules, as we are taught to accept them, limit the potential of those participating in the system, by strictly defining who can or cannot play, who is allowed on certain turf, and what rules apply, whether they make sense or not. Kind of reminds you of the times in elementary school when no one picked you for kickball, right? Well, that happened to me a lot, so I stopped playing kickball.
I played by the accepted rules for a long time, and it was killing me. So I changed the game, I bought my own turf, and I’ve been giving away tickets to the game for the last two years. Attendance has been low (only about 20,000 visits over the last two years), but for most of that time, I was playing it safe (or being overly cautious and driven by fear of bankrupting my family.) I have not been jumping the gate into anyone else’s stadium, I’m not playing their game nor accepting their rules. I’m not borrowing their field, and I’ve brought my own ball. This is a different game, I’m playing to a different audience, and I intend to win. I hope you win, too.
Who has an unfair advantage in this kind of scenario? Some might argue that it’s the established system, the old guard, and those people they accept and embrace as the next era of visionaries. Me, I say “meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” That’s business. That’s institutions. That’s closed-system thinking, which assumes that the only people who can get into the game are those with a ticket, or those who jump the gate.
I don’t need to jump the gate. I have my own stadium. It’s got great loudspeakers, a few loyal fans who get me (you know who you are, and thanks!), some others who seem at least mildly intrigued by what I am doing (even those who are annoyed by it or don’t completely understand it), and the beer’s pretty good over here. (No point in owning a stadium if you aren’t going to serve good beer, I say.)
What’s your game?
Whose rules are you playing by?
Do you intend to win?
If you do intend to win, will it be at someone else’s expense?
Did You Enjoy This Post?
- Please take my reader survey and tell me what you think about Higher Ed Career Coach. It’s 11 questions and shouldn’t take long. Also, SurveyMonkey will be selecting one recipient at the end of June to receive a $25 Amazon gift card. So give your feedback and get a chance to win!
- Please like the Cook Coaching Facebook page and join the career discussion boards there!
- Follow Higher Ed Career Coach on Twitter
- Connect with me on LinkedIn
- Sign Up for our mailing list and get early announcements about upcoming site features, workshops and coaching specials.
- If you are interested in one of the upcoming summer groups or workshops, follow the links below.
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Jun 14, 2011 | Career Skills, Negotiation, Site News
Games are always a part of business, and many times a part of life. Whether you enjoy a game or not depends on a couple of factors:
- Whether you want to play a game
- Whether you are playing the same game others are playing
- Whether you agree with the other players about how the game should be played
- Whether one side or the other has an unfair advantage (or is cheating)
- How big the risk is, in comparison to the reward
I’m not a hard-core gamer. I appreciate those who are, and can identify with where they are coming from. I used to play video games quite a bit, but I wasn’t very good at them. Not terrible, just easily bored. I only have a certain amount of energy to put into playing a game, and when I get bored, I usually stop playing and don’t go back to the game for a long, long time–and then more to figure out why I liked it, or to intentionally waste time. So, in most cases, I don’t want to play games (at least not the ones other people are playing.) Tactical exchange bores me easily, because I’m less worried about objectives, and more worried about winning the war.
This is different for me if the game is strategic, but most video games aren’t. They are tactical, and have clear objectives, definite results, and limited rewards. I like that stuff for a little while, but overall, I am a strategic, long-haul thinker, and as a result, people don’t get what I’m doing, because I am often playing another game altogether (a game within the game, or a game I am making up outside of the game.) So it’s about understanding game theory, more than winning a particular game
I also don’t believe that life is a zero-sum game, like poker, where someone has to lose for others to win. I actually think that cooperative games, played over the long haul, can result in unexpected outcomes for all players. The point of playing the game is still to win. But more than one person can win, and it doesn’t have to be at the expense of others.
This doesn’t remove the need to be self-interested and protect your goals. It just means that you don’t have to take something away from others to win. It does reinforce the inherent need to keep others from causing you harm. Like I said before, I generally prefer not to play games. But if forced to play, I do my best to win. And if people go for my throat, I don’t hesitate to fight back, and to do so on my own terms.
In a couple of recent conversations, I’ve tried explaining to people what exactly I am trying to do with my coaching business, programs and websites. They didn’t get it. I had a conversation with another person about these conversations. It was a social setting and this was a friend, so our talk was free-flowing as we had beers with a few others involved in a community organization (Athfest) that I am involved in.
These are the conclusions we arrived at:
- I need to do a better job explaining myself and what I do.
- Other people probably still won’t get it, because they think I am playing a different game. And…
- People will understand what I am talking about in five years, when it’s an established way of doing things, and accepted as common wisdom and common practice.
What game are you playing?
Whose rules are you playing by?
How committed are you to winning?
Did You Enjoy This Post?
- Please take my reader survey and tell me what you think about Higher Ed Career Coach. It’s 11 questions and shouldn’t take long. Also, SurveyMonkey will be selecting one recipient at the end of June to receive a $25 Amazon gift card. So give your feedback and get a chance to win!
- Please like the Cook Coaching Facebook page and join the career discussion boards there!
- Follow Higher Ed Career Coach on Twitter
- Connect with me on LinkedIn
- Sign Up for our mailing list and get early announcements about upcoming site features, workshops and coaching specials.
- If you are interested in one of the upcoming summer groups or workshops, follow the links below.
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | May 30, 2011 | Site News
As we come up on the 2 year anniversary of Higher Ed Career Coach, I’ve been working on some changes to increase readership and engagement with existing readers. You’ve probably noticed the Facebook page and discussion boards, and changes in the direction of content, toward practical how-to articles and interview tips, and away from of the more philosophical pieces about higher education and first-person perspectives and reflections. Those won’t go away entirely, but this recent focus has been the result of a couple of things… diving into analytics and seeing what content is getting the most reader response, and asking readers directly what they want to see more of on the site.
The changes are also the result of some ongoing efforts on my part to show my coaching skills and get more business. I’ve been a member for a while now of the Third Tribe Marketing membership site run by CopyBlogger, and I recently joined the Authority Rules conference, to learn how to get more comfortable with marketing by developing ways to market myself authentically.
A big part of this is developing an awareness of how people perceive me and the Higher Ed Career Coach brand. And it’s hard sometimes to separate what you think you’re putting out to the world from how it’s being perceived. So I’m doing a survey during June to find out more about why people visit the site, whether they get what they came for, and what they think about the site and brand.
One person will be selected to receive a $25 Amazon Gift Card once the survey closes on June 30. SurveyMonkey takes care of the selection of the prizewinner and fulfillment. See sweepstakes rules for more details.
To take the survey, follow the link below:
Click here to take the reader survey!
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Apr 25, 2011 | Job Search, job search tools, Site News
Social Media has changed the way we look for jobs, network, and do research on our fields of interest. Today, there are many opportunities on the internet to expand your reach, and to leverage the power of your personal and professional networks, but it’s especially important that you have a “socially intelligent” approach to what you are putting out to the world. Now, more than ever, individuals need to be careful about how they present themselves, know what is being said about them, and nurture relationships that enhance personal and professional credibility.
Much is made these days of the topic of “emotional intelligence” and what your EQ implies about your aptitude for certain types or positions and your ability to adapt to new situations and challenges. An increasingly important part of the equation is your “Social Network Intelligence.” This is where emotional intelligence collides with technology and communication, and results in perceptions of your motivations for work, readiness for a new role, adaptability toward new challenges and your general degree self-awareness.
To help you understand the various aspects of “Social Network Intelligence,” and to integrate this concept into your job-seeker arsenal, HigherEdCareerCoach will be offering an online mini-course on “Social Network Intelligence for Job-Seekers” this summer. Enrollment for the first session will be limited to 20 persons.
To find out more about this program, fill out the free “pre-enrollment” form below. When the schedule and cost are finalized, members of this list will receive the first opportunity to enroll. If the course fills from the list, those who cannot be placed will be offered the opportunity to sign up for a waiting list for later sessions.
I hope you will be able to participate in the mini-course. The content I’m developing so far should be really useful and I will be adding some bonuses that will be announced only to members of the list (they’re going to be good!)
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by sean@higheredcareercoach.com | Apr 21, 2011 | Job Search, job search tools, Podcast, Site News
Questions and answers are the currency we trade in job interviews. They help us evaluate the parameters of a potential working relationship, and to feel out whether the various pieces of the picture will “fit” together into a coherent whole.
In preparing for interviews, candidates often spend the bulk of their time anticipating questions and practicing how to answer them. Toward this end, I’m introducing some new features here on the site and as part of the BlogTalkRadio podcast, and tying them in to my practice’s Facebook page.
The first of these features is going to be a cooperative effort between me and John Mayo from Western New England College. We’re calling it “The Grill,” after a Twitter-hashtag fueled mock interview that John and his colleague Mike Hamilton from Landmark Leadership did for their friend and my former client Jenna Magnuski that they tagged as #grillJenna.
The Grill will have three parts:
- The introduction of one interview question each week on the blog, with tips on ways to approach answering the question.
- An invitation to share your responses and get feedback and tips in the comments for that week’s question.
- A call-in segment of the next podcast, devoted to letting people call in and answer the question, and get live feedback on how to refine their approach and their answer.
Another important aspect of the interview is the opportunity to ask questions of the interviewers. Tomorrow’s article will be about this important part of the process, and will give tips on how candidates can use questions to imply their motivation and readiness for a job, and to assess the possible fit between their interests and the position. That article will be a lead-in for Friday’s BlogTalkRadio show with special guest Meghan Harr of Old Dominion University. Meghan shared a great list of questions that she likes to ask during her interviews, that will be available through the website and on my company FaceBook page.
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