The Exclusive Career Coach

Lesa Edwards
The Exclusive Career Coach

The Exclusive Career Coach is presented by Lesa Edwards, CEO of Exclusive Career Coaching. This weekly podcast covers all things career management including job search strategies, interviewing tips, networking tools, maximizing LinkedIn, salary negotiations, and managing your mindset around your career.

  1. 12월 18일

    A Framework to Help You Prepare for the New Year

    This is my last episode of 2024. I’m a huge fan of evaluating what went right and what didn’t – and what changes you want to make for 2025.  The point I want to make, loud and clear, is that change doesn’t have to be massive. Incremental change can be highly effective – and more achievable.  I’ve used this framework on the podcast before, but it’s still great so I’m using it again. I first learned it from my first coach, Denise Hedges. She recently made reference to this 4-step change model in a recent newsletter, which reminded me that I wanted to do this exercise during my planning retreat for next quarter.  Here it goes: STOP … START … CONTINUE … CHANGE. What do you need to STOP doing? Maybe it’s something you can delegate. Maybe no one needs to do it anymore.  What do you need to START doing? What is a habit, practice, or activity you want to begin to do? Perhaps you want to commit to a walking program or go back to school for an advanced degree. It could be something simple like intentionally greeting everyone you see on your way into the office every morning.  What do you need to CONTINUE doing? Make sure that, in your efforts to make some changes, you don’t throw the good out. Keep engaging in the activities and behaviors that have worked for you this year.  And what do you need to CHANGE about how you’re operating? Maybe it is an activity you must do every day, every week, or every month…and you hate it. Is it possible that changing HOW you do the thing could make it less unbearable…or even enjoyable? OR is there a way you could do something more efficiently?  As Denise goes on to say, “Most people go at the change process piecemeal, addressing one or two things at a time in isolation vs. looking systematically at everything that’s susceptible to improvement. “And that’s not where the gold is. Especially since the things that likely garner most of your attention are problems … things that need fixing … vs. opportunities and enhancements you may be overlooking.” “Stop, start, and change are about doing things differently. It’s easy to focus on what needs to be fixed. “Continue” is just as important. Make sure to give yourself credit and acknowledge what’s working. Recognize and appreciate what’s made you successful and valued by those you serve. Don’t concentrate solely on how you can do better.  “You’re undoubtedly doing a lot of “right” things and doing a lot of things well.” STOP … START … CONTINUE … CHANGE. Ask yourself these four simple questions and journal your answers. Then come up with a plan to achieve each.  As I wrap up the podcast for 2024, here are mine for you: STOP trying to make other people happy at your own expense. You can’t control other people’s thoughts or feelings, so focus on your own happiness.  START questioning your beliefs. A belief is a thought you keep thinking…and many of us choose to think thoughts that don’t serve us. Even if the belief is true: Does it benefit you to think it?  CONTINUE self-improvement. Never stop learning, growing, and evolving. The opposite of this isn’t stagnation, because if you aren’t moving forward, you’re moving backward.  CHANGE an activity or habit that no longer services you. Bored with your workouts? Take up pickleball. Change the way you go to work every day…or the first five things you do when you get there. Commit to changing your relationship with your boss or a co-worker.  You are brilliant! I know this because you are choosing to listen to my podcast instead of something that doesn’t help you grow. I wish you for the happiest of holidays and a wonderful start to 2025.

    10분
  2. 12월 11일

    Why Poor Employee Engagement is a Leadership Problem (with Dr. Roger Gerard)

    In this episode, I speak with Dr. Roger Gerard, the owner of Sloan & Gerard Consulting, a private consulting practice serving executives and boards in strategic planning, operational planning, executive coaching, and management development. Roger talks about leadership’s important role in employee engagement – and why hiring for cultural fit is so important. Roger walks us through three types of employees a leader may encounter – the cynic, the apathetic, and the naysayer – and how to lead each. Roger’s 5 simple promises leaders need to make and keep sound so easy, and yet so few companies actually do this well. We also talk about what an employee can do when leadership isn’t holding up their end of the bargain, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Dr. Gerard is the author of Owning the Room: Leading with Mind, Heart and Spirit to Make Extraordinary Choices in a Demanding World and the forthcoming title, Lead With Purpose: Reignite Passion and Engagement For Professionals in Crisis. He also co-authored On the Mend: Revolutionizing Healthcare to Save Lives and Transform the Industry. To connect with Dr. Gerard please visit his website www.rogergerard.com (http://www.rogergerard.com/) and www.linkedin.com/in/rogerg (http://www.linkedin.com/in/rogerg). Are you in the wrong job that chips away at you every day? The document and coaching programs offered by Exclusive Career Coaching will help you find a job that uses your zone of genius, recognizes your value, and pays you what you’re worth.  If you’re ready to take your job search to the next level by working with a highly experienced professional with a track record of client success, schedule a complimentary consult to learn more:  https://calendly.com/lesaedwards/zoom-meetings2

    40분
  3. 12월 4일

    New to Hiring? Here's a Quick Guide

    From now until 12/20/2024, I am offering all my services at 50% off. To take advantage, be sure to mention either the "Gift a Better Career" special or just indicate 50% special. Schedule your consult to get the ball rolling at:  https://calendly.com/lesaedwards/zoom-meetings2 I receive a periodic newsletter from Suzie Price of pricelessprofessional.com. Suzie and I were in a mastermind together several years ago; Suzie is a consultant for companies who want to improve their hiring efforts. She sent out this “Quick Guide for Hiring” and I wanted to take a look at her steps from both the hiring and candidate side.   Phase 1 - Planning  Clarify Expectations – Be clear about what success looks like in the role.  Identify Key Skills & Behaviors – Know what traits drive high performance. Collaborate – Involve your team for diverse perspectives. Assign Roles – Give each interviewer areas to focus on for well-rounded assessments.  Takeaways for those involved in the hiring: This planning stage is often glossed over – or disjointed from those who will actually be doing the interviewing.  Start with the end in mind: What does this person need to know, do, and be for them to be successful in this role? Be sure you are taking your company’s mission, vision, and goals into consideration – otherwise, you may end up with someone who can do the job but isn’t a cultural fit for the organization.  Choosing the right people to be involved in this process is critical, as is giving each person a specific focus for the interviewing process. Who will this person interact with, both inside and outside their department?  If you are leading the process, make sure everyone involved knows what the process will be. How many candidates do you plan to interview, and what will that process look like? How and when will selection be made? Set expectations up front – and if you aren’t the leader and this isn’t being done – ask questions.  Takeaways for candidates: Your homework is to understand more than just the job description. You want to know the company’s mission, vision, and goals, the company’s history and plans for the future, who its competitors are and where this company fits in to that competition.  You also want to know who you’ll be interviewing with, so you can look them up on LinkedIn and get a sense of where they fit into the organization and how you would interact with them on the job. Knowledge is power!   Phase 2 – Interviewing Ask the Right Questions – Behavioral-based questions to assess competencies.  Spot High Performers – Look for traits like accountability and time management.  Stay Neutral – Talk less, listen more. Let candidates reveal themselves. Take Notes – It’s not just about what you hear. It’s about what you remember. Dig Deeper – If answers are vague, press for specifics. Clarity is key. Sell the Job – Highlight why your company and the role are worth their time.  Takeaways for those involved in the hiring: If your company doesn’t have a structured interview process – or if the structure in place isn’t working as well as it could – do what you can to effect a more useful process.  Ask each candidate the same set of questions – otherwise, it’s very difficult to evaluate them on equal footing. Of course,

    24분
  4. 11월 27일

    Annual List of Five Unusual Things to Be Thankful For

    If you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that I do an annual list of five unusual things to be thankful for each year during Thanksgiving week. In some cases they are my personal things – and in other cases, they are more observations of the world. In either case, I always bring the five things back around to what you can learn from them. Last year, I borrowed from what I was seeing my clients go through. This year, let’s get personal. In no particular order, here we go: #1 – A lull in the action. Of course, we all need time to rest and recuperate – to rejuvenate ourselves. (I’ll talk about this later.) What I found this year during a bit of a lull in my client load was the time to THINK.  I thought about the big stuff – the direction I wanted to take my business in, long-term goals, KPI’s. I also thought about the small stuff – changes I wanted to make to programs, processes.  I came away from that time feeling more focused and determined. So much so, in fact, that I started building in 2 full days each quarter to work on items on my Action Plan. (aka Get Stuff Done days).  My message for you? Make sure you are allowing time in your schedule for what Stephen Covey calls Quadrant 2 activities – Important, But Not Urgent. Planning, organizing, creating the vision for your future. Whatever that looks like in your world.   #2 – Travel by myself. I did a pretty big thing this year – I took a full week of vacation, out of the country, by myself.  I had people who wanted to go with me…and people who were willing to go on their own terms. I said no to both.  As a single woman, I knew I needed to get over this fear of solo travel. What would people think? Would I be safe? Could I manage the literal heavy lifting by myself? I spent six days in a beautiful resort in the Dominican Republic. I did exactly what I wanted to do, when I wanted to do it. Ate when and where I wanted.  There were no other solo acts in sight. And guess what? I was perfectly okay with that. My message for you? What’s your version of Solo Travel? Maybe it actually IS solo travel – or maybe it’s saying yes to an activity that scares you, or saying no to something or someone that no longer serves you. Maybe it’s seeking out a new position with a new company. Or starting your own business.  Calculate the risk, and if the math says to do it – jump.   #3 – Taking care of myself. I became a card-carrying member of Medicare this year, so I embarked on a massive journey to take care of some things I had put off when I had Obamacare.  Suffice it to say, there were tears of frustration throughout. I remember thinking “how do other people who perhaps aren’t as intelligent as me, or have the mental faculties I have, navigate this? I spent hours upon hours following up with various medical specialists who had let my care slip through the cracks.  My message to you: Be your own best advocate. You can play the blame game – I admit to quite a bit of that this year – but you can also keep putting one foot in front of the other and get it done. Whatever it is for you – take care of yourself.   #4 – Doing the emotional dance. I’m not comfortable giving much detail here, other than to say that I learned some valuable lessons this year about how to process other people’s opinions of me. How to sift through harsh feedback to determine what was valuable information for me to make changes in my life – and what was someone else’s opinion of me and truly none of my business.  My message to you: Growth is rarely comfortable. It requires dissonance and discomfort – otherwise, we wouldn’t see the need to grow.

    20분
  5. 11월 13일

    Finding Ikigai for Your Career

    I talked about the concept of Ikigai back in episode #243. This past week, a colleague posted a graphic about Ikigai and it got me thinking that it was time to re-visit and expand on this concept on the podcast.  Here’s the purpose of Ikigai: It is the Japanese answer to a life of purpose. In practice, this concept of Ikigai is a lifestyle, which the Japanese live somewhat instinctively.  We here in America can learn from the Japanese in this regard. Here’s a quote from the ikigailiving.com website: “Your Ikigai wakes you up in the morning and leads you away from a mundane, status-quo lifestyle. It empowers you and drives your actions and purpose.”  Ikigai is the intersection of -What you love -What the world needs -What you can be paid for And -What you are good at  What I liked about the graphic my colleague posted was that it shows what I’m going to call “partial Ikigai” – what you end up with when you have two or even three of these things, but not all four. This is where I want to go today. Here’s my invitation to you as you listen: For those of you who are living your Ikigai – this is an opportunity for you to sink into gratitude about that. To think through – perhaps even journal on – the ways in which you are at the intersection of what you love, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you are good at.  For those of you who know you AREN’T in Ikigai and those of you who realize it by listening to this episode, I will give some tangible steps you can take at the end. I promise, there is a way to at least move towards your Ikigai without changing everything about your life.   What You Love + What the World Needs = MissionAt this intersection, you are engaged in work you love AND contributing something the world is in need of. You’re committed to the environment, let’s say, so you find yourself volunteering for several climate groups, save the whales, saving the rain forest. Perhaps you are getting paid for your work, but not at the level your education and experience call for.  What you DON’T have at this intersection is consideration of what you are good at or what you can actually get a paycheck from.  You are committed to the cause, you are fully bought-in to making the world a better place. BUT you are either doing volunteer work or not getting paid enough to live a respectable lifestyle. You also are doing work that you aren’t necessarily good at – perhaps loving the cause and your idealism so much that you are square-peg-in-round-holing it.  Result: Burnout and Poverty. You aren’t playing to your strengths in this role, which will, eventually, lead to burnout. You will be constantly “picking up” odd jobs or one-off assignments to earn enough to make ends meet. You will likely be denying some desires, such as travel, a home of your own, etc.  Solution: Is it possible for you to get a full-time job with one of the organizations you’ve volunteered with, or been in a smaller role with? Can you keep the cause you are passionate about, while shifting your role within that organization to one that compensates you and utilizes what you are good at?  Possible Compromise: Start with figuring out what you actually need to earn for the lifestyle you desire (be reasonable). Then consider volunteering for your causes – or supporting them financially.   What the World Needs + What I Can Be Paid For = VocationAt this intersection, you have a very practical occupational decision – devoid of passion. You’re being pragmatic, but not taking into consideration what will actually fill your soul.

    25분
  6. 11월 6일

    How to Earn Bonus Points on Your Behavioral Interview Answers

    I talked about this topic way back in episode #150, which aired in 2020. I thought it was time to bring it back. The framework I teach my clients for answering behavioral interview questions is CAR(L). C – Challenge A-     Action R – Result (L) – Lessons Learned The “L,” when used correctly, can be incredibly powerful in driving home exactly what you want the interviewer to learn about you from your answer. “L” can take two forms: Lessons Learned – “What I learned from this situation was…”OR“What I think the story demonstrates about me is…” I think the beauty is in examples, so here are three:  Example #1Interviewer: “Tell me about a time when your customer service skills were really put to the test.” C: In my current role as branch vice president, customer concerns are escalated to me. By the time the issue comes to me, the customer is often angry and frustrated. Just recently, I received an escalation at one of my branches concerning a customer who claimed the bank had stolen money out of her account – and she was understandably furious. A: I knew this was not a situation to be handled over the phone, so I set up a time to meet with her at a neutral location where we would have privacy. I felt this environment would be less stressful for her than to go into her branch. When we first met, I worked to establish a connection with her – not as an officer of the bank, but as a human who was concerned about her issue. I didn’t want to dive right into the problem – I wanted to put her at ease. When I asked her about the situation, I asked her if I could make some notes. While she was talking, I didn’t interrupt to ask questions – I wrote my questions down for later. When I asked questions, I made sure they didn’t sound accusatory or defensive. I then promised her I would fully investigate the situation and get back to her in one week. R: After conducting my investigation, I found that a cosigner on her account had, without her knowledge, withdrawn the money in question, and I was able to tell the customer who that person was. I did this in a compassionate way, knowing that she would likely feel embarrassed about the situation. I think the best indicator of how this turned out was that the customer baked cookies for the branch staff and sent me a personal thank you note. (L): What I think this demonstrates about my customer service skills is my patience, how attuned I am to maintaining everyone’s dignity and privacy, and ability to find a problem that others couldn’t.   Example #2Interviewer: “This position requires extreme attention to detail. Describe a time when you had to exhibit exceptional levels of attention to detail.” C: Earlier this year, my boss asked me to conduct a final proof on our annual investors’ report. This document had already been reviewed by 2 others, and I think my boss expected that I would give a quick review and rubber stamp it. A: Instead, I decided to fact-check everything. I clarified how much time I could have for the project – it wasn’t much time. So I worked evenings and over a holiday weekend to complete my assignment. R: I was able to find four number errors that would have had significant impact if sent out. I also found a number of grammatical and spelling errors, which I also corrected. As a result, I received a personal note from my boss, commending me for my efforts – and I am now the designated final reviewer of our annual investors’ reports. (L): What I learned from this assignment is that sometimes I need to go deeper than what is asked or expected of me.

    21분
  7. 10월 31일

    Bridging the Gap Between New, Mid-Career, and Late-Career Employees (with Cheryl Fields Tyler)

    My guest this week is Cheryl Fields Tyler, CEO and Founder of Blue Beyond Consulting. We are talking about the challenges – and rewards – of having multiple generations in the workforce (Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z). Cheryl tells about the key takeaways from her research – both for younger workers and those who lead them – including the skills you need to work in a multi-generational work environment, the differences and commonalities in workers’ needs and requirements, and how to leverage a range of strengths in a diverse workplace. Cheryl has worked for more than 30 years in helping organizations build cultures where both the business and the people thrive. She has been featured in media including CNBC, BBC, Fast Company, and Forbes. In 2020, Cheryl received the For All Leader Award from the Great Place to Work Institute, and under her leadership, Blue Beyond has been repeatedly recognized as one of the Best Small & Medium Workplaces by FORTUNE and as an Inc. 5000 company. You can find Cheryl Fields Tyler at:www.bluebeyondconsulting.com (http://www.bluebeyondconsulting.com/)linkedin.com/in/cherylfieldstyler Want a copy of Cheryl’s research?https://www.bluebeyondconsulting.com/winning-on-the-people-side-of-business/ (https://www.bluebeyondconsulting.com/winning-on-the-people-side-of-business/) Are you in the wrong job that chips away at you every day? The document and coaching programs offered by Exclusive Career Coaching will help you find a job that uses your zone of genius, recognizes your value, and pays you what you’re worth.  If you’re ready to take your job search to the next level by working with a highly experienced professional with a track record of client success, schedule a complimentary consult to learn more:  https://calendly.com/lesaedwards/zoom-meetings2

    50분

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The Exclusive Career Coach is presented by Lesa Edwards, CEO of Exclusive Career Coaching. This weekly podcast covers all things career management including job search strategies, interviewing tips, networking tools, maximizing LinkedIn, salary negotiations, and managing your mindset around your career.

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