Peak Careers

Professional Development for Career Practitioners

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Survey Says…Engagement!

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Survey Monkey

On my 8th anniversary of being full-time with Peak-Careers, February 3rd, I sent out a request to complete a short survey seeking insights to where people engage with Peak-Careers.

One of my 3 words to guide me in 2020 is “Strategic”, and I wanted to gather some information to help me be more strategic in my efforts.

Survey says “engagement”

A special “shout out” to the nearly 70 people who took the time to fill it out. Thank you so much.

The survey says I have strong engagement in these top 4 areas…and lessons learned in a few others.

  1. Many people do indeed read my weekly career emails that come out Tuesday mornings
    RESULTS: I will continue to send you career content each week.  (see below if you want to be added to the list).
  2. 55+% of the respondents follow me on LinkedIn and read my posts.
    RESULTS: I will make sure that I continue to share quality content to help you do your job and serve your students / clients / customers.
  3. 55% have watched at least one of my monthly career interviews! I am thrilled at this outcome.
    RESULTS: I love doing these interviews with other career practitioners and will definitely keep identifying experts and topics to interest you.
    REQUEST: Do you have topics or people you’d like to hear from in future interviews? Let me know and I’ll work at setting it up.
  4. 40% of the respondents have taken an online seminar
    RESULTS: I know that not everyone is interested in online learning, so I am actually very happy with this number and will continue to offer and develop more subject areas.

LESSONS LEARNED

Facebook Live has not been as popular. I will do one more FB Live and then reevaluate if I will continue them.

  • Tuesday March 3rd at 8:00 pm (Eastern)
  • I will talk about private practice
  • Tips on what has worked for me
  • Recommendations I have for anyone who wants to go into private practice.

Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram are also not where many of you are hanging out. I need to put more thought into whether I want to invest more into each of these to grow them or to “let some of them go”.

If you are interested in the graphic / chart results you can see them here.

Gratitude journal

Regardless, I am grateful for the many people who took time out of their day to give me feedback.

Knowing that so many people support me and find value in following me is wonderful to know.

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly career news email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. 

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INTERVIEW: Taking Retreats to Slow Down

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  • How many things are on your “to do” list today?
  • How many times/day do you check your email and social media accounts?
  • Get control over your day again by choosing 3 things to do each day that “must get done” and then look at your list of 25 things.
  • Check your email 3 times/day…bunch them up so you are not chasing emails all the time.

And…consider taking a day, or a half day, retreat to slow down and rediscover your creativity.

 
Listen to this Peak-Careers Interview with three of us who have been doing retreats for a while now and learn:
  • What our typical “retreat” looks like
  • What motivated us to start doing them
  • What the benefits of doing them can be
  • and some advice & tips for getting started
tech free retreat

Interested in this topic? See my blogs on mindfulness

 

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a monthly newsletter for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

Sign up here to receive my  TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON.  You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more.

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

3 Reasons to Practice Mindfulness at Work

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Sunrise over Honolulu

In our ever-busy world that we live in, it is important that we find ways to slow ourselves down as a way to better serve ourselves and clients. Our ability to manage the tsunami of information coming into us daily and hourly is inversely linked to the quality of services we provide. If we are constantly chasing emails, tweets, and other social media messages, we are not taking the time to slow down and “think”.  Yes, just “think” instead of reacting.

“Mindfulness is deliberately paying full attention to what is happening around you and within you – in your body, heart, and mind. Mindfulness is awareness without criticism or judgement.”                        

From Jan Chozen Bays, Author of  How To Train a Wild Elephant: And Other Adventures in Mindfulness

Here are three reasons why you should practice mindfulness as a career practitioner.

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Journaling: Taking ‘Fuzzy Thinking’ to Concrete Ideas in Career Development

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As a career coach/counselor, do you ask  your clients to journal? I do occasionally because I believe the process of taking ideas out of their heads and putting them on paper can be a very powerful activity.

“A goal not written is only a wish.” I believe this is true in the career development process…write it down and think it through.

Personally I try to journal every day, first thing in the morning. I choose to free-style it and just write about what is important to me that day. It clarifies the ideas in my head and takes them from fuzzy thinking to something concrete. I also think it helps to journal on a regular schedule so it becomes part of your day.

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Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. Cal Newport

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Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World. By Cal Newport

I needed this book to confirm a bunch of thoughts I have been struggling with in my busy life. Cal does a persuasive job describing the benefits for removing the clutter of our daily lives that eat of time he calls “shallow work” like emails, social media, and more. This is what I call “feeling like a golden retriever with 4 tennis balls in the room.”

Cal talks about the many benefits of Deep Work that requires longer periods of uninterrupted time that is much more productive. Carl Jung built a retreat for himself that he would go to and think and write and think some more. He still was active in his social life but not the days he was at his retreat.

Cal’s definition of Deep Work: Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. These efforts create new value, improve your skill, and are hard to replicate.

He gives many great examples of people who have mastered the ability to focus and to think deeper thoughts and produce great work from Woody Allen who wrote and directed 44 films that received 23 Academy Award nominations in 44 years! As well as some guy names Bill Gates who would take “Think Weeks” twice a year.

In 2012 a McKinsey study found that the average worker now spends more that 60 % of the workweek engaged in e-communication an Internet searching, with close to 30% of their time reading and answering email alone!

The Deep Work hypothesis: The ability to perform deep work is becoming increasingly rare at exactly the same time it si becoming increasingly valuable in our economy. As a consequence, the few who cultivate this skill, and then make it the core of their working life, will thrive.

Cal postulates and has research to support it, that by practicing Deep Work and thinking, you can grow this ability, much like a muscle. The more you can get into Deep Work daily, the more benefits you will produce. AND Deep Work will allow you to be focused enough that you can stop working evenings and weekends. Folks, it is a compelling book to read.

Coloring Books and Career Development

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Can we as career counselors and coaches help our clients in their career development by being more fully present in the moment? Appreciating the value of turning off our technology and taking time to just ‘think’? Embracing these basics of ‘mindfulness’ as a useful approach to help our clients when job searching and for life in general?

You don’t have to spend hours meditating to be totally in the moment. Often the path to mindfulness is brief, simple, and even unexpected.

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My wife asked for an adult coloring book for Christmas this year. I had no idea what that was, but she has one now…and she loves it! Why? I believe it has to do with mindfulness. Being present in the moment. No technology. Tactile. She has to focus which clears her mind. It can be challenging.

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