Career Opportunities with Douglas E. Welch

Make it clearer, not more confusing — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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As someone who has spent their life working to support, train and educate people, I have learned again and again how important it is to be able to explain difficult concepts quickly and clearly. A good explanation can help everyone involved leap forward in their understanding and productivity. There are few tools as powerful as a good explanation to help people work to their highest potential, but there is a bit of an art to creating and delivering great explanations and answers to tough questions. Here are a few guidelines I have developed over the years to help me be better at explaining and always work towards making concepts and ideas clearer, not more confusing.

Read Make it clearer, not more confusing — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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The Client Dance — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Working with any client is a dance — or at least it should be. Dancing partners have to learn a lot about each other — how they move, where they move, how they communicate their moves — and working with any freelance client is much the same. Just as when you are learning to dance, there will be mistakes, missteps and a few toes are sure to be stepped upon. It is part of the nature of learning and developing any relationship.

 

Read The Client Dance — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Projects should have an end, not just fade away — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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It is the nature of life , business and career that you will start many more projects than you complete. Needs change. Specifications change. Business climates change. Projects once thought new and innovative are superseded by those even newer and more innovative. In this hyperactive world of change, we can forget that sometimes the best beginnings are actually good endings.

Too often in life and work, we simply let projects, ideas and initiatives fade away instead of bringing them to a useful, definitive end. Equipment is left to slowly die in a corner or closet. Books sit unread and unwanted on employee bookshelves, budgets for one project slowly get absorbed by departments. While this slow fading of, usually failed, projects might be easier on our ego, it saps the energy and attention we need to focus on the new, even better, projects to come.

Read Projects should have an end, not just fade away — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Always in transition — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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I frequently find myself speaking to careerists who are in transition from one job to another or one career to another. I have also been involved in my own career transition over the last year or so. While we all might like to think that transition is a short term process, I have discovered, looking back over the past year and my whole life, that transition is not a fleeting process we fall into and out of. Rather, life is truly nothing but one long transition — a state of constant flux. We might have dreams and desires for stability, but in a world that is constantly changing, stability is only an illusion and a temporary one at that.

 

Read Always in transition — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Combine all aspects of your life into your career — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Each and every one of us is a unique combination of knowledge, temperament and experience. We all have different wants, needs and desires.  It is this very uniqueness that can bring us great success in our careers, if we use it to its full potential. If you can find ways to bring all your experiences, all your desires and all your knowledge to bear on your career, you will find many opportunities to find work and do great work.

Read Combine all aspects of your life into your career — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Companies and employees need to make better mistakes — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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I had a very common experience with companies, their employees and mistakes this week. it made me think about ways that they could improve mistakes — which happen to everyone — and make them, at least, a tolerable experience for everyone involved. Making better mistakes could be be one of the best ways to improve customer service you have ever found.

 

Read Companies and employees need to make better mistakes — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Respect yourself and those around you — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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It can be the smallest things that effect the success of your career. My 16 year old son has reminded me of some of the behavioral basics that can mean the difference between being successful in your job and being fired. You might think these behaviors are small, but I can guarantee you, they can be be some of the biggest annoyances to those around you. If there is one thing you never want to be in your career, it is annoying, so take heed of the advice noted below.

Respect the time of others

Adults should always respect the time of others. You shouldn’t make people wait on you, nor you on them. This is a waste of the person’s time and, I believe shows great disrespect. Any manager who is chronically late to meetings is showing very clearly what he thinks of his staff. His time (or hers) is obviously worth more than the staff. Staff will pick up on this clear indicator and begin to r esent it more and more. No one likes being disrespected and if a manager isn’t careful, they might find themselves out of a job entirely. You can’t expect staff to respect you or your initiatives if you constantly disrespect their time and efforts.

Read Respect yourself and those around you — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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The secret to career success is just showing up — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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“80% of success is showing up” — Woody Allen

The older I get the more I begin to see the wisdom in Allen’s quote. Throughout my life I have seen those who “show up” in life and work and those who constantly talk about what they want to do/might do/do if they only had the time. Perhaps is more a part of life in Los Angeles, but I get the feeling that people all over the world are faced with great problems in simply showing up. They can invent 101 excuses why they didn’t show up, but can’t seem to find the one reason , the one project, the one exciting moment where they show up and become fully involved in their life and work. What is worse is these same people often spend an inordinate amount of time bemoaning their fate. They blame everyone and everything else except the one person, the one thing, the one place where the fault really lies — themselves.

Read The secret to career success is just showing up — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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It’s OK to investigate new job opportunities — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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It is a freelance work world out there today. As I often coach people, you need to think and act as a freelancer, even if you are currently employed full time. We all know how easy it is to go from employee to unemployed these days and it is important to protect yourself as much as possible from unforeseen layoffs. I find, though, that many people are greatly conflicted when it comes time to investigate new job opportunities. They can feel a sense of fear, a sense of disloyalty, a sense that they are somehow cheating their current employer. Let me be the first to allay your fears. When you investigate new job opportunities, you are practicing the best elements of career self-preservation. You are doing exactly what needs to be done to build the career you deserve.

Read It’s OK to investigate new job opportunities — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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Make your invisible work visible — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

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For most of us, our career and work skills are hidden from all but our immediate co-workers and clients. Most of our friends, family, and certainly our loose connections and strangers often have no idea what we do for a living or how we accomplish it. As you might imagine, this can make it very difficult to move forward in your career. This is especially true in a world where visibility of both ourselves and our skills is a major tool in attracting opportunity to us. While you may be doing great work, if no one knows about it — internally or externally — that work is not benefiting you in some very important ways. To make it work better for your, you need to make your invisible skills, talents, and accomplishments visible to the outside world.

Read Make your invisible work visible — from the Career Opportunities Podcast

* A portion of each sale from Amazon.com directly supports our blogs
** Many of these books may be available from your local library. Check it out!