Author: Emily Clay

It’s been hard to concentrate the last few days and many people I’ve spoken with are feeling the same way. Typically our newsletter goes out on Thursdays but here we are on Friday (again) and that’s OK. Every year, there’s a ritual of setting goals and making a plan but this week doesn’t feel motivating or authentic to tackle a vision board. So instead, I’m focusing on newsletters I’ve found over the last few months that have made me smile, made me a bit smarter and above all have made me explore different topics, ideas, and possibilities.

Newsletter Topic: Purpose 

• In almost every meeting I’ve had over the last six months, the notion of doing something meaningful or purpose-driven has come up in conversations. John Wood is the author of “Leaving Microsoft to Change the World” which recounts how he used his business acumen during his career in technology to develop one of the fastest growing nonprofits in history. He’s also the Founder of Room to Read, an organization that believes world change starts with educated children. Room to Read has brought education to 16.6 million children in 16 countries. His newsletter provides brief updates on book and travel recommendations, philanthropy and inspiring stories of business leaders who are "powered by purpose". John Wood Newsletter - Business leaders who are powered by purpose.

Newsletter Topic: Business

• Morning Brew provides a quick recap of business topics and trends. The Hustle curates the latest business news and trends as well. I like it because it gives me some perspective on what other people feel is noteworthy.

• Lin Jin is a Harvard graduate who wants people to know that if they’ve been laid off, they can easily build and grow their own company without the help of a developer. Recently, she launched a Substack newsletter called Side Hustle Stack. It's a gold mine of resources to find platform-based work, ranging from gig work and side hustles to platforms that help you start a small business that can grow.

• When I talked about a no code course to my tech savvy friend, he told me about the Makerpad: Build & operate businesses without code newsletter which provides advice and tutorials about new technology (specifically no code products to build a business easily).  Since I am interested in Future of Work topics, I search for information about new tech tools and want to learn about companies that have thrived during the pandemic. Packy McCormack’s Not Boring: The Best Is Yet To Come newsletter makes this topic not boring at all.

“When it is all said and done, I believe that historians will look back at the Coronavirus pandemic as the greatest catalyst for progress and creativity in human history.”
                                - Packy McCormack, Not Boring

• For all the freelancers, out there, check out The Freelancer newsletter for all your questions and resources answered.

Newsletter Topic: Career

• Emma Gannon is the Author of “The Multi Hyphen Method: Work Less, Create More. How to Make Your Side Hustle Work for You” and is the #1 podcaster on the topic of careers in the UK called “Ctrl Alt Delete”. Her newsletter is a delightful mix of work, wellness and creativity. Join thousands of curious readers & join The Hyphen newsletter.

Newsletter Topic: Wellness & Development

• Ness Labs is science-based content to answer the question: “How can we make the most of our lives without sacrificing our mental health?” Ness Labs - Make the most of your mind
• Shane Parrish is the creator of a podcast called Knowledge Project and it’s excellent. He cuts right to the chase with his questions for his guests and has a variety of topics. His newsletter is called “Brain Food” and it comes out every Sunday.  There’s always something new and thoughtful in it. Brain Food fs newsletter

At first I was hesitant to submit my email address thinking I’d be bombarded with unnecessary emails but after reviewing them, I fell in love. I’m convinced these will help with 2021 audacious goals and that giant vision board... eventually.

2020 has not exactly been a gem of a year but cheers to the light around the corner.  

Sometimes (OK, always) I tend to go down a rabbit hole when I find interesting articles and resources so I wanted to share a few things I learned along the way.

1. Tiny Habits Coach to Achieve Goals:

Big goals can be overwhelming so breaking them down to smaller habits is more effective according to BJ Fogg, a behavior scientist at Stanford. BJ wrote “Tiny Habits” in 2019 and there’s a formula to follow to get to your end goal. We spoke on the phone in July and he gave me insights on how to create more habits that turn into consistent positive behaviors. We wrote about his research on behavior design and his steps here.

Right now he’s offering a free coaching series for 5 days. He has certified coaches that you can choose based on your needs and can participate in a 5 day “Tiny Habits Challenge” one on one.  Sign up for it here.  If you want to learn more about BJ Fogg, he’s been interviewed on several podcasts and videos.  

• The Secret To Creating Habits That Stick: Professor BJ Fogg | Feel Better Live More Podcast
• BJ Fogg’s behavior model can be applied to marketing and technology as well. In fact, one of his students at Stanford was Mike Krieger, the founder of Instagram. This article describes how his model works in order to discover what motivates consumers online. Motivation & Trigger: How Using the Fogg Behavior Model Increases Clicks

2. Building a Business or Startup:

I was lucky to be accepted into a startup course called Founder Institute in the Fall.  Although I left the program after three months, I learned so much from my cohort and the content provided. One article (Forbes 2013) is a comprehensive guide that discusses the steps to take when considering startup ideas. I’ve sent this to friends who are startup curious and they’ve found it valuable.

• What Are The Best Ways to Think of Ideas For a Startup?  Forbes
• Naval Ravikant is the CEO and co-founder of AngelList. He’s invested in more than 100 companies, including Uber, Twitter, and Yammer.  I learned about him through a podcast by Shane Parrish of The Knowledge Project. If you enjoy listening to deep thinkers, his interview is excellent and was one of their most popular episodes.  Naval Ravikant: The Angel Philosopher [The Knowledge Project Ep. #18].  There’s a book about Naval’s life philosophies and his compilation of wisdom about wealth, taking risks and leadership among other things.  His book can be downloaded for free here
• If you’re searching for topics on self-development and business-related topics such as strategy, and creativity, this is an excellent resource I found on Twitter.  It was compiled by Steve Schlafman of High Output, a leadership development firm. The curated list:  Bookshelf Recommendations
• If you’re wondering if you should start a business, this article explains why midlife is a perfect time. Sheila Callaham is a Forbes Contributor and was one of our webinar guests and wrote about the ideal age to found a company. Why 50 is the Best Time to Found a Company - Forbes

3. Future of Work & Longevity:

Since work is no longer a guarantee of material security, how can we empower ourselves and keep earning money?  Living longer and healthier lives is a good thing but with a retirement crisis, how can we remain financially secure in midlife?

• We wrote about areas of growth in the future of work and focused on the non-technical opportunities here.  We also wrote about the Passion Economy and how this is a trend for people to earn money.  One reason is because access to no-code technology tools makes it so much easier to get started.
• Gartner outlined the digital skills that will be needed in the future - beyond IT positions.  Lack of Skills Threatens Digital Transformation.
• If you want to geek out about longevity and the impact the changing work demographics will have globally (and possible career ideas), check out the 2020 Stanford Longevity Century Summit.  It’s a free recording of the event and includes experts from all over the world.

“A report by the World Economic Forum indicates that by 2022 the job skills most required by employers will include not only proficiency with new technologies, but also creativity, emotional intelligence and critical thinking skills. The report also found that over half of all existing workers will require significant reskilling and upskilling to meet the demands of the changing labour market.”

We’re staying open to new possibilities and ideas in 2021 and want to hear from you about topics you’re interested in learning more about. Also, if you’ve found resources that you consider gems in a bummer of a year, we’d love to hear about them. Whether it’s for personal or professional development, please reach out at hello@illumehire.com. 

Happy New Year!

In 2020, it’s no wonder “doom scrolling” has kicked up a few notches. The pandemic, layoffs, riots and forest fires this past year have caused many people (including myself) to occasionally slip into fear. Controlling our fearful mindset is possible according to several social scientists. Fear can help us to survive of course, but the challenge is discerning which fears are serving us and which ones are holding us back. How do we recognize helpful survival mode fear and useless ego based fear?  How can we build more courage moving into 2021 in order to accomplish brave new goals?

Courage is action in the presence of fear and doubt, not their absence.  Here are a few ways to build up our courage muscles to help push through and take action. According to Maggie Warrell, Author and Phd in psychology, here are steps that can help build courage:

1. Gain Clarity:  Write down exactly what you want and envision it. Make it a specific goal you would like to achieve in the next 6-12 months. The more detail describing the goal, the better. 
2. Daily Bravery Practice & Small Steps: Daily mental and physical habits are important in ordinary times but in tough times when so much can throw us off, it’s even more critical. Start by writing down what might happen if you DO take action toward that giant goal. Break down your vision into smaller more manageable steps in order to tackle it.  Afterall, difficult tasks take time. 
3. Envision a Future Self: Take a moment to envision your future self about how you need to be brave right now. Imagine it’s two years from now. Picture yourself in your favorite place looking back on this moment right now. What advice would your older, wiser, future self give to you in your current situation? 
4. Identify and Own Fear: Ask what will happen if I face the fear.  Maggie wrote, “notice the uncomfortable emotions you’ve been feeling and give each a label. Anxiety. Hopelessness. Overwhelm. Sadness. Resentment. Apprehension. Stress. Fear. . . As a UCLA study found, the very act of naming your emotions helps to tame them. So label what you’re feeling and notice where it’s sitting in your body.” 
5. Surround Yourself with Giants: If you want to live a bigger life, you need to surround yourself with people who ‘think big’ and will encourage you to do the same. Accordingly, you’ll want to avoid any people in your life who may discourage your actions and step on your dreams. While they are really just afraid that you will leave them behind, as you start out, you should steer clear of people who will fuel anxiety and feed self-doubt. Never let anyone diminish you or your dreams.

When we choose to see the possibilities instead of dwelling on fear, embracing change is so much easier. Melanie Greenberg, Ph.D., is a psychologist, and author of The Stress- Proof Brain wrote, “Research (Kobasa 1979) suggests that resilient people have three important characteristics—commitment, challenge, and control. Commitment involves having a passion for what you do that allows you to stick with it when things get rough. Challenge involves viewing your stressor as a challenge, rather than a threat (which helps your amygdala calm down and generates positive emotions, such as hope and excitement). Control involves investing your time and energy in changing the things you can control, rather than trying to change the unchangeable.”

Achieving anything worthwhile takes small brave steps and we all know being uncomfortable isn’t fun. But as we start taking action, we discover that we’re capable of more than we thought. It all begins with a single act of courage.

Happy Hour Series with Sheila Callaham

Recap: 3 Communication Tips During a Crisis

Last Thursday, we had the privilege of having Sheila Callaham as our guest on illume hire’s Happy Hour series. Sheila is the Executive Director and Board Chair of Age Equity Alliance.  AEA is an organization partnering with companies, communities, and government agencies to build age equity in the workplace. Sheila is also a contributor to Forbes, writing exclusively for the Diversity and Inclusion channel. She also served on The Conference Board’s Council of U.S. Diversity & Inclusion Executives, and the board of the North Carolina Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. I’ve paraphrased the event below.

The theme discussed was 3 Communicating Tips During A Crisis:

• What it Takes to Communicate Effectively
• How to Approach Difficult Conversations

Questions:

Why should a focus on communications be important when there are so many other things we need to be thinking about? And what about this topic is especially important for midlife career professionals?

• If you have good and consistent communication practices, it’s going to help when issues arise - no matter what age you happen to be.
• When you’re under stress, your body tends to react in a “fight or flight” response so when you name it and recognize it, that can help in communication efforts.
• Knowing ahead of time how your body responds to highly stressful situations will help to mitigate an inappropriate vocal response.
• Know your end goal with the other person and practice it.
• Trying to recover from a bad communication experience is much harder than planning for it ahead of time.
• What can we do when we’re in that situation?  Take a deep breath and ask permission to come back to the conversation later.  If you’re so stressed and can feel your heart pumping and body responding, then you know it’s time to step away from the conversation.

What are the three most important factors in successful communications?

• Timing of the conversation is huge so consider where that person’s mental space might be at that moment. Is it better to approach a discussion later in the day or early in the morning?
• Ask powerful questions because when you do so, it gives the other person a voice. And this makes the other person feel respected and it can build trust.
• Focus on the goal of connection and ask powerful meaningful questions
• Understand where their resistance is coming from in order to learn more about the other person’s viewpoint.
• Sometimes people resist because they don’t understand the purpose or where you’re coming from in a situation.
• If there’s informational disconnect, take a harder look at that to help resolve it and gain more understanding.
• Ask questions like “What part of this do you know feel comfortable with?” and “What would make you feel better about this?”
• Another reason why people resist is “emotional resistance” and this can happen in change management.  When change happens, it can be stressful and the whole idea is to articulate why it’s going to be better on the other side.
• Realize there’s something called “judgemental resistance” which is caused by a lack of trust and ask yourself why this may be the case. If you think about the political environment now, people will not listen to the other side. When things like that happen, it’s great to ask more questions like “What would it take to get you on board?”  That is a good time to bring in stakeholders to help communicate.
• Sheila talked about tone of voice and how people adopt their communication style based on where they work. Her example was working for the military and when she moved into the private sector, she was told she didn’t need to communicate in a way that was similar to what she had been doing at her military job.

How can we get better at approaching “difficult conversations”?

Sheila worked for 15 years in pharma at GSK. She went through a training course on “constructive contention”.  When it’s uncomfortable, people want to avoid it. Many people have not experienced a constructive contentious conversation when there’s an agreeable outcome. The key is to NOT run away. Stick with it and ask questions and be calm.

In business, there is often someone responsible for “crisis communications.” How can we leverage what they do for personal crisis conversations as a professional?

• In corporations, it’s all about reputation management.
• For crisis communication to be successful, you need to to focus on four things: 1) Quick response 2) Being authentic in your response 3) Take responsibility 4) Be part of the solution
• Don’t let things fester. Talk about it.
• Sheila cited corporate communication examples.  British Petroleum oil was one example of a slow response and not being accountable as a bad example of crisis communication.  The CEO was defensive about the explosion. They did not have an emergency plan and they even admitted they didn’t have a plan. People were angry about their response and 12 people had died. They did not respond quickly at all. They had completely missed out on communicating properly.
• Sheila cited Tylenol as an example of positive crisis communication.  Someone had tampered with Tylenol and inserted cyanide and as a result, seven people had died. They recalled $100M worth of product, they got the FBI involved to find the culprit and acted quickly and authentically. They lost loads of market share but they were honest with the public and took responsibility.   

Communication is more than just the words we use. What other things do we need to be thinking about how to ensure successful communications?

• Tone of voice is important
• Body language is important so if you need to have a hard conversation then it’s important to ask for a video call so that you can see how they respond.

We discussed how we should communicate during challenging times. What are some things we should NOT do that we need to think about?

• Don’t respond when emotional
• Ask for time to reflect and to come back to the situation to discuss logically
• Create space to think about the conversation and where you want it to go
• Remain calm
• Be positive
• Your goal is to help so articulate your goal and desire for a positive outcome

 It’s hard to judge how a conversation went. How can we really know if it was successful or not?

• Repeat what was said to gain clarity
• Be committed to the outcome.
• Trust in yourself that when you communicate, it’s successful
• Ask them, “How do you think our meeting went?”
• If it’s a contentious meeting in a team setting, go back to them and say, “What could I have done differently?”  There is trust that is built when managers admit their mistakes and go back and ask for feedback on how they could improve the situation.
• In a conversation, you always want to be a good listener.  Listen fully and try to make the conversation 50/50.

Other tips:

When/if people talk over you, how should you handle it?

• Say, “I have something I’d like to contribute” or “Will there be a point I can talk?”  
• After the person has finished interrupting, you could say, “As I was saying... “

How can we communicate better in a Slack world?

• If someone is combative, maybe don’t respond at all
• Remember that you don’t have to have the last word
• Be curious about others and where they are coming from
• Make a phone call to reach out to them instead of Slack or Zoom to gain more clarity
• Know that if you feel resistant to someone else’s idea, there’s a learning opportunity there and an opportunity to grow.

Where to Find Sheila Callaham’s work:

 Age Equity Alliance

LinkedIn 

Sheila's Twitter

Forbes – Diversity Equity & Inclusion + Aging Workforce articles by Sheila Callaham

Sheila’s Communication Tips: 9 Communications Tips by Sheila