KCSpeaks

Starting a new year with focus the key to being productive and achieving your personal and professional goals. This logic is the reason resolutions are so popular. They give voice to our goals, hopes, and wishes. Unfortunately, so many people fall short each year of achieving their goals. By the first buds on the trees in early spring, the resolutions are long forgotten. Instead of the pressure of resolutions, I want to return to my “anti-resolution resolution” idea from 2017. I suggest the one word resolution. Coming up with a word that will not only be the word for our personal and professional lives takes some thought. What word could be both relevant to all people, both workforce professional and non-workforce professional alike?   After much deliberation, the one word for 2019 is “improve.” The word “improve” is so relevant to our day to day lives in the land of workforce development. In our industry, we seek to improve the economy, improve businesses, improve peop...

If you live in the United States and you do not live under a rock, you or someone you know may have had lotto fever recently. There was a mega lottery pool for $1.6 billion dollars. There was only one winning ticket sold and I can say it wasn’t me. Like everyone else, I had a case of lotto fever, spending money in my head before I even saw it. The dream was alive. The majority of individuals I know not only had lotto fever, but in many groups, including workplaces, the groups had it also. When a group of people band together on a mission to win it, the experience is an amazing and completely natural exercise in team building and if you payed attention, the power of the lotto team building is amazing. It showcased how team building really works and how teams come together to make something happen.   I want to start with a lie of team building. Does the saying, “teamwork makes the dream work,” sound familiar? This saying, straight off a motivational poster, has been brand...

Are leaders born or made? You will find experts on both sides of the aisle, but rather than argue about the birds and the bees of leadership, I would rather focus on the development aspect. People with natural tendencies and also those growing into leaders all have one thing in common. They have to learn more and more along the way. The workforce development industry needs leaders. It needs leaders to grow and expand business. It also needs leaders to grow and expand the clients and customers we serve. Either way, leadership is important and it should be a focus of our work.   A budding leader is like a rose. When someone starts to show their leadership abilities, you see the colorful bloom begin to emerge from the bud. Then slowly, the leader develops and more and more petals are exposed until you see the full beauty of the flower. Just like a flower you need the right conditions in order to get the leader to the full bloom.   Water, soil, and sunlight are all neces...

It doesn’t matter your industry, working in a team is part of the way work is structured in our society. An individual’s experience and opinion of team work can depend largely on how great his experience as a team member has been. As many experts have written on the subject, it is still a hot topic of conversation. From my observations, there are a couple of things all the experts are missing.     Team building is a myth. It is a big fat lie to make people feel good. A team is not a house. You do not build it. People do not fit together like bricks. Teams are more like puzzles. Each unique piece fits together to make the picture whole. If you are missing a piece, you do not have a picture. Also, you can’t make pieces fit where they don’t belong. This means that in order to have a great team, you need the right pieces and not just any piece will do. The mix of people with their personality and skill set is what makes the team whole.   Teams are like familie...

It is hard to work in a people oriented business and not have to deal with feelings.   In workforce development, we are dealing with all kinds of feelings because of the implications work has on the day to day lives of people. Our society places such a high value on work, so it is not doubt the disruption in work causes emotional turmoil. A job loss can bring sadness or anger. Some people may feel they have lost their purpose. Not to mention the stress of the loss of income. In the land of business, a loss of jobs may mean slowing production, less revenue from selling widgets. The disruption causes stress and the emotions the workers have as a result can be chaos. In workforce development, we have a front row to the emotional roadshow. We see the negative and positive emotions. One day it is sadness of a job loss, another day it the happiness of finding a new career. This means we have to process everyone’s feelings in order to do our jobs. It is important for us to und...

Welcome to summer. The heat, the sun and all the summer fun everyone tries to cram into a short period of time. Summer can also be nostalgic with memories of childhood at camp, the beach, and the summer job. For many adults, the summer job was their first paid work experience. Before the days of scheduling every minute of your child’s life, many teens had their first job over the summer when they did not have to go to school. Thinking back on my own life, my first paid work experience was babysitting. I remember being trusted to care for a couple of children and being paid for the experience. No background check needed. I lived in the same neighborhood as the family I worked for. They trusted me. I had other summer jobs too. I scooped ice cream at a luncheonette and worked at a local clothing store. I have to say that none of those jobs made me rich. I had experience earning my own money and felt proud I had done so. Other people I knew had other summer jobs. Some were lifeguard...

There comes a time in your career when cross over to the other side. I am not speaking about changing jobs, companies, or industries. I am speaking about that moment when you cannot develop professionally without personal development.   In the land of workforce, we are always talking about developing those hard core skills for ourselves and our job seekers. We spend time figuring out the best technical skills to learn, what education and training to obtain and how those things transfer from one job to the next. In the land of service to business, we provide tangible services, information, and people all based on those hard core measurable things. The feeling is magical.     Somewhere along the line, we apply our wisdom from workforce ages and sages and we blossom and grow. Like climbing vines, we creep along the wall, expanding our knowledge, gaining education, certifications, and experience until one day we hit the ceiling. We are stuck and cannot move. ...

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? Common philosophical question to ponder and depending on your scientific perspective you may say egg or chicken, but this post is not to ponder where our chickens came from. Instead, I want to look at the egg in our land of workforce development.   If you think about an egg, the white area is large and surrounds the core, the yoke.   People are much like eggs. They have hard skills and soft skills.   These hard skills and soft skills are what cause people to get and keep jobs.   In our land of workforce development, we teach people how to get jobs. We also provide hard skill training, but what happens after the people leave our nest. Do they retain jobs? If you are a seasoned professional, you probably have examples in your head of those who cannot keep a job. You also have memories of people that found their dream job and are still happily employed. The difference is the where the hard and soft skills are....

Earth day is here, a day to remind ourselves we need to be good stewards to planet we call home. This reminder is true for everyone, even when we are in our role as workforce development professionals. The most obvious role in workforce is encouraging the growth and development of green jobs, but this post is not about creating or obtaining green jobs. This post is about being green in our day to day workforce development business.    Workforce development is a system requiring resources. Earth Day is about conservation. This Earth Day it is important for each person to evaluate the resources. On the top level, resources require money. When funding is tight, resources are evaluated and that dreaded, “do more with less” phrase starts rearing its ugly head. Before the very top of the funding chain starts cutting, it is important to evaluate resources and be proactive If Earth Day is about anything, it is awareness of waste. Bottles, paper, and other trash are not only ...

When I was a young child, I learned fire safety in school. One of the principles I was taught was to stop, drop, and roll if your clothes catch on fire. This week I experienced a fire. My fire was not a literal one, but it is something that caused alarm. A new data system was implemented and forced people to rethink how they do the tasks of their jobs. It also threw people out of sync of their daily routines. For many people new things cause stress and panic, but a change in how you carry out your tasks does not need to be a five alarm crisis.   The solution to the crisis of the change is back to elementary school fire safety. Before you panic, stop, drop, and roll. Panic does not help the situation. It only makes learning harder. When something new rocks your daily routine, slow down.   First, stop for a minute and think. What comes first? What is a sequence of tasks to complete a process? What are the fundamentals of the topic? What materials do I need? What...

A person cannot spend any time in the workforce field without being an endless observer of people. Good or bad, people are what make the larger economic development machine work. Watching people, you come to learn we are part of the animal kingdom with some behaviors unique to our species and others similar to the other creatures that breathe on this planet.   This is why one of those more non-traditional interview questions, “What animal best describes you and why,” is used by employers to get insight into potential employees and see how self-aware the applicants are. Before self-declaration as a hippopotamus or a gold fish, a little reflective thought is the best preparation to understand what animal you are and what animal you really want to be like.   To really understand animals and how you are part of the animal kingdom, take a moment to watch some videos. Does an animal live alone or in groups? How does an animal seek its food? Does it set a trap and wa...

Another year in my life has passed. It’s time for another birthday. Each year as the day approaches, I take the time to reflect on my past year, my accomplishments, and my goals for the year. My birthday is like my personal New Years’ celebration with another opportunity to have the best year ever.   I am not afraid of a birthday. Age is just a number, but each year is what you make of it. Each year I have seen the sun rise, the rain fall, and the snow melt, I have been given a gift from the universe. Many people do not get to see another birthday. I owe myself the opportunity to set goals and feel proud as I work towards achieving them. Sometimes these goals have been born from unhappy feelings and bad situations, but growth brings wisdom.   In my working life, and especially as a workforce professional, I know some of my growth must be professionally. Having experience working with job seekers looking for jobs, I understand how crucial professional growth is...

People have a love of technology. We have smart phones, watches, refrigerators, and cars. The reason is technology is supposed to make our lives easier, so we do less work and have more leisure time. Technology is also fun. I refer to all the smart gadgets as “grown up toys.”   There is one problem. The smart stuff is only as smart as the users. Smart not only refers to the gadget, but the user. How many people buy a fully loaded car or a highly advanced phone, but do not use all the features? Usually the reason is not taking the time to learn how to use all the features or overestimate the need for the features.   In workforce development, we do the exact same thing with technology. For example, imagine a workforce system implemented an online unemployment insurance filing system designed to save staff time and money by allowing people to file claim from anywhere there is an internet connection. It sounds wonderful. People will file unemployment online and man...

We have arrived in January 2018. If you live in much of the country, not only are you trying to keep you resolutions, but you are also dealing with winter. I am a resident of the Northeast where winter will keep you on your toes. It can be bitter cold one day, a blizzard the next, icy conditions effecting everyday life.   One of those realities of winter are potholes. Anyone who drives a car in a state where nature takes winter seriously knows all those fun snow storms and bitter cold days cause potholes.   Potholes are not fun. They can cause serious damage. When your car ends up in a pothole, you can end up with a flat tire or worse a broken axel. These unexpected car repairs slow down your plans for travel, your time, and your money. As a driver, your defense to potholes is either avoidance or careful driving.   They are a part of life and workforce development.   People have potholes in their careers. Welcome to workforce development, a land for p...