KCSpeaks

Each year end, I always look back at my blog posts and do a recap. Some years, I have commented on the most popular. Other years, I have commented on the ones you may have missed.   This year, I was looking back at the year in workforce development and I noticed a theme.   The year 2015 was a year of questions.   Of all the topics that I have covered in my time as a workforce development blogger, nothing has sparked more conversation, comments, and emails than when I just questioned the day to day business of life in workforce development land.   It seems that I am not the only one that asks questions in this industry. This year, I was just the reporter.   The best example of my questions, was a post from September 2015 called “Workforce Development 101: What to Call the People.” The conversation that this post sparked continued on for months past the post.   It seems that in each corner of workforce development land, in each program, there are...

Forget trying to be a leader. You are a leader and you may not realize it. If you read most articles, they will tell you how to be a leader. They all assume you are not a leader.   Instead, I am going to focus on how you are a leader in your professional life or personal life. Voice – Maybe you ask questions no one else does? Do you advocate for yourself or others that could not on their own behalf?   Leaders carry a presence in the language they use with themselves or others. Their decisions, thoughts, beliefs lead a lasting impression other people. Visibility - Leaders always end up front and center, no matter the situation. Perhaps you are taking an exercise class and ended up in the front row everyone watches you.   Maybe you are suddenly singing louder in the choir?   Perhaps you were the person in the middle in the group picture? Leaders have a natural born presence to them. They somehow end up getting seen and do not easily blend in the background....

As November progresses, I start to think about hotlines. Each year before Thanksgiving, Butterball launches their Turkey Hotline for people to call in with their turkey questions and issues.   I have never called this hotline and hope to never need to, but realize that if this service is provided year after year, that there is a demand for turkey advice. There are other hotlines out there.   There are social service based hotlines for suicide prevention, to get help with various additions, and hotlines to get referrals to services.   All of these things are needed and demanded. Even in the age of the internet, there is still a need for the telephone. The reason is that in a time of need, whether that be turkey or lifesaving, there is a need to reach out to a person. A real person and say to that person “Can you help me?”   Now back to the land of workforce development. There are some customers of the workforce system that need this same kind of servic...

Life in workforce development land has been busy recently. New legislation means that programs need creation or revision. There are new policies, new partnerships, new procedures, new technology, and anything else that is new in life to keep us occupied.   New equals busy for those of us in workforce development land as we explore the new landscape, but when we are busy being busy we miss so many things that help us become better us. I have taken a breather from busy for a few days to notice all the things that I was too busy to see. For example, if you pick up a fallen autumn leaf while walking you will see that there are veins in leaves that reach all areas of the leaf. Now passed its prime, those veins no longer bring water and nutrients to the leaf, but rather dry up and allow the leaf to curl from dryness.   While you were busy I noticed that the life cycle of a leaf on a New England tree is much like a business. It grows and blooms to prime. It expands and covers t...

In my years of workforce development, I have worked with many different people. People seeking all kinds of positions, with different levels of education, and experiences that vary. Many times people that end up in the one stop career center are not only looking for a job, but also seeking that inner “next” for them. I met a job seeker recently that was just that.   Many times in workforce development, a workforce development professional will help the job seeker define who they are and what they offer in regards to a specific position, then work to help the job seeker find companies that offer that position. Unfortunately not everyone fits that mold and this job seeker was not going to be able to slip into the standard mold. What made this job seeker different? This job seeker had a variety of skills, but expert at none. He had business skills, technical skills, clerical skills, and people skills. He had knowledge of multiple industries from his experiences in his caree...

Each day in my working life, I go to my office full of job seekers and workforce development professionals. I am surrounded by people that both know and understand what I do or at least have an idea what I do for a living.   I exist in a bubble of sorts where I don’t need explanation.    Then I leave the confines of the office and I enter my real life. One of the things that is difficult is trying to explain the industry to non-workforce development professionals. Some industries have a name for people that are not in the industry. For example, in religion, non-clergy are “laymen” or for the military, anyone non-military is a “civilian,” but terms of the non-professional aside, these are the non-workforce folks.    Recently, I was at an event in the community. People that had never met were coming together for a cause and the first thing is introductions.   As everyone went around and introduced themselves they mentioned their work or industry...

Anyone that is new to workforce development will have to learn the language of the system. There are multiple languages in workforce development. The official terminology written in the laws that govern workforce development programs may be the standard language, but each state and local area has a dialect of the language for its programs. One of the big differences that can vary from state to state or even program within that state is the name that we call the people that use the services.   In workforce development, the people that use our services are job seekers. Regardless of their status of youth, older worker, dislocated worker, TANF program, income eligible individual, eligible veteran or spouse, each person that comes to a workforce development program are job seekers. Why do we have so many names for the most basic of terminology? If job seekers are the life-blood of the workforce development system, why do we just not call them “job seekers?”   In my...

If anyone thinks career branding is a trend, they are living in the job search past.   Career Branding is the thing in the 21 st century job market that distinguishes one job seeker from another or it tells employers why one Administrative Assistant, Business Analyst, Banker, or Underwater Basket Weaver is better than another. Definitions aside, career branding is important to a job search and every expert and in the career coaching, counseling, and workforce development business has an idea on how to best do it. Just like all the above people that have ideas on career branding, I do too. I think that there are key things that you can do to stand out from the other candidates, but this post is not about how to career brand yourself, it is more of a what not to do in career branding.   For workforce development professionals in reader land, below are the red flags of a career branding gone wrong.     Commercial for what? – Have you ever seen a commercial a...

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of my son came to the house. Both boys have graduated high school this past June and will be embarking on separate paths soon. My son will be attending a community college before transferring to another school to complete his four year degree. The other boy will be moving to another state to learn about farming in a spiritual environment for a year before entering any formal education.   The boys sat in my suburban back yard and were chatting. Afterwards, I asked my son about the conversation and his friend’s plans.   He said they were talking about their post-graduation plans and others they graduated with post-graduation plans and antics.   I spoke to him about some things I heard about his former classmates in the news lately. One graduate is accused of burglarizing a gas station. Another is accused of exposing himself in public to a group of children in a park. Both boys are currently pending criminal charges and facing serious j...

By now everyone in workforce development land is entering the waters of WIOA. Some folks have dove into the pool, while others are gradually getting deeper in the WIOA Ocean. In my neck of the woods, we are walking into the ocean.   As part of this, front line staff received some training on the basics of WIOA. It was discussed how each partner is now a mandatory partner and each partner has the same outcomes, meaning that the era of paper only partnerships are over.   During this training the new buzz words “collaborative partnerships” were tossed around. Again this is a fancy way for saying everyone needs to play nice in the sandbox to get the job done. I get it.   We have left the farm. There are no more silos of “I only do this” and “that is not my job.”   The end result, employment, is everyone’s job.   In order for these new “collaborative partnerships” to work, there is something that needs to be in place. I call it the silent “C.”   It ...

This August marks my conclusion as part of the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP) New and Emerging Professionals Initiative (NEP). Last August, I became one of the inaugural 10 young professionals in the United States to be part of this initiative.   For those that are not familiar, the New and Emerging Professionals is a program of NAWDP for workforce development professionals age 35 and younger that are seeking to grow their leadership skills and contribute to the future of workforce development. Since the deadline is looming close for the next group to apply, I wanted to write about my experience as a NEP member and tell those interested a little bit about my experience. For my readers out there wondering if this blog post was solicited by NAWDP, it was not. I am blogging on my own free will!   If you look at the NAWDP website for information on the New and Emerging Professionals, https://www.nawdp.org/Content/NavigationMenu/Abo...

The universe works in mysterious ways.   Despite the wishes, desires, and hard work of many individuals, sometimes there is a curve ball.   This curve ball is just when an individual has it all figured out and that person is on a course towards a certain action. These curve balls happen all the time in life and can be good and bad.   They also happen in our professional lives. A few months ago, my son was deciding what to do about his upcoming college decision. Where he would be attending college depended on the outcome of so many factors. He had his top choice, but after that the options were shaky. Being a good mother and the eternal workforce development professional, I encouraged him to take making his backup plan more seriously. He made the statement “Plan B’s are for those not confident in their Plan A. I will worry about that when I need to.”   I applauded his confidence in himself, but was concerned that there were so many factors besides admission that...

Anyone remember the Oprah Winfrey talk show? If you watched this show, especially in the later years, every year near Christmas, Oprah came up with a list of her favorite things and then gave them to her audience as gifts.   Like Oprah, I have a list of favorite things, except my list is for workforce development professionals.   Online Infographics - Infographics are basically an online chart. It has pictures, words, and is extremely colorful. There are so many available and can be found on probably every topic imaginable. The information contained is condensed down to the key points. Looking for job seeking information about résumés, cover letters, or interviewing? Looking for statistics on industries, job seeker demographics, or leadership tips? You can search the internet for infographics on just about any topic. Great for job seekers and workforce development professionals alike.   Career Portfolios - Job Seeking is no longer about showing what I did, b...

Author’s Note: This blog is dedicated to my son, the high school graduate! As you walk across the stage and receive your diploma, so many things may be crossing your mind. The joy of achieving a life milestone, fear of the unknown, hope for the future, and of course the sadness of leaving the only world you have ever known behind.   I cannot offer you riches, but I can offer you wisdom as you will be entering life known as adulthood. Life is full of ups and downs. No one exactly knows when the scale will tip in either direction, but each parent always wants their child to achieve only joy and not to know sadness.   Like the roller coaster of life your professional life will be the same, so I offer you these tips for starting out your career.   Figuring it Out Sometimes you think you know what you want to do, only to find out it is not the best thing. Other times you do not have a clue. There will be many times like this in your life. Not just at that mo...

I was working with a job seeker whom was extremely frustrated. Many of her frustrations were due to her circumstances. This woman had never found it so difficult to land employment before in her life. She was 55+ years old, too young to retire, and considered to be too old in many employers’ eyes. Having been a hard worker her entire life, she could not understand her prolonged period of unemployment and how it was not enough to just tell an employer how badly she wanted a job.   During our conversation, I discovered that her method in selling herself to employers dated her to the past tense. I gave her some information with many of the tips and tricks of the trade, but I could tell that she was fearful of changing her ways. She did not really understand why her résumé format needed an upgrade and why she needed to take advantage of networking opportunities. That’s when I told her to be a hamburger. Not just any hamburger, but THE hamburger of an employer’s desires. The ...

There are times in each person’s life when things do not work out as expected. Sometimes those times are personal and other times those times are professional. Everyone has a moment when the outcome was not as planned and this can be quite difficult to stomach. An individual goes back over the event in his or her mind and tries to figure out what went wrong. The “if only” phrase comes to mind and suddenly the event replays like a broken record. Suddenly, the spiral is out of control and a past tense event is front and present. It is not that life can sometimes be unpredictable that is the issue. Rather the issue is the repeated replay of events. Sometimes a job seeker will come in the office with a “life happens” story that caused his job loss. In workforce development land this scenario is quite common. If there are a million stories in the naked city, there are just as many in workforce development land.   The job seeker explains what happened to his job to you and because...