Informational Interviewing

Getting Started with Goal Setting

After I graduated from college, I moved back home with my parents and started an entry level job with the Sprint Corporation.  My sister gave me a book called 'Maximum Achievement' by Brian Tracy. In this book, Mr. Tracy recommended having written goals.  I fumbled my way through the goal setting process, but it got me started and I got better at it as I went along. In this episode, I walk you through my original goals, critique them and then explain what I would do differently today.  My most important recommendation lies in the book I recommended for the month of August entitled 'The 10X Rule' by Grant Cardone.

Learn How to Deal Effectively with People

In my mind, the book 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' by Dale Carnegie is a foundational book that should be required reading. Through high-school, undergraduate college and my masters degree, there were only TWO classes that dealt with working well with others in the workplace.  These two classes were helpful, but a deeper study on how to deal effectively with people would have gone a long way. In this episode, I share Mr. Carnegie's three fundamental principles from Part I of his book, 'Fundamental Techniques in Handling People'.  They are: Principle#1:  Don't criticize, condemn or complain. Principle#2:  Give honest and sincere appreciation. Principle#3:  Arouse in the other person an eager want. If you've not read this book, please listen to this episode and its my hope that you'll seek out the rest of this valuable content by reading his book or listening to the audio version.  The book is carried by most libraries. ** Please rate/review this Podcast and leave comments.  ** ** For more content like this, please follow me on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook at @decadenavigator

Accountability as Your Competitive Advantage

There are a number of leaders today that, when caught making a mistake, will go to the podium and offer an 'expression of regret' as if that expression will make it all go away. Contrast that with a strong statement of owning your mistake, making a commitment to fix the mistake and accepting the consequences that come with the mistake. In this episode, I share my thoughts on how being known as someone that is accountable can be your competitive advantage.

Failure

Society and the culture has this fascination with perfection which manifests itself in a constant stream of criticism.  Social Media has amplified this constant stream of negativity.   This irritates me.   The reason it irritates me is that this can scare people into doing NOTHING.  Further, the people doing the finger pointing typically don't have the resumes to give them the right to judge ANYBODY much less you.   I'm right on this.  Think about it.  Think about your favorite professional athlete.  Do they get on social media and make fun of the people that got cut from the team?  NO.  They've got better things to do.  Actually, the true greats will extend a hand and try to help.   The critics produce nothing.  They're just finger pointers.   In this episode I share some of my earliest setbacks 'failures' and how things worked out in the end.   Please share, comment and ask questions.  Please let me know how I may be helpful to you. Please follow me on Instagram @decadenavigator

Informational Interviewing

When you are just getting started, you may not have a lot of opportunities or people to talk with about jobs.  Informational Interviewing is a great way to learn about different career paths AND build a network of people. In this episode, I walk you through how to get started with interviewing people, who to talk with, how to ask them and what to ask them. Please leave comments!  Please follow me @decadenavigator on Instagram.