Kit Prendergast, PCC
Kit brings you a wealth of expertise and experience as well as a wonderful spirit, energy, and a gift for inspiring you to create the life you truly want for yourself.Kit's Tips & Books
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Category Archives: Kit’s Tips
Take a Walk to Clear Your Mind
One of the advantages to understanding the inner workings of our brains is gaining some tips on how to get unstuck and move past those all too-familiar roadblocks. A good example is “writer’s block”. You have something important to get out but the more you concentrate the more you can’t come up with a creative idea or even an opening sentence. You’re stuck in an impasse and the more frustrated you get with yourself the more your mind locks up. Here’s what works for me . . .
Stop right now. Disengage your thinking brain, the prefrontal cortex, by getting up and moving. Let your brain take a break by moving into another quiet activity – not another thinking task – but rather physically moving by walking, doing a routine household chore or sorting your paper clips. Quiet is the key – reduce as much background noise and distractions as you can. You may also find that you are at your creative best at a certain time of day. Mine is early, early morning after that first cup of coffee. My mind is clear, my energy is high and new ideas are flowing.
Now it’s your turn . . . what works for you? And how can you do more of what works for you this upcoming week? If all else fails, go jump in a nice long hot shower. That always works!
Three Steps to Start to Write a Cover Letter
It’s that first impression that can make or break a final job offer. Writing a powerful cover letter is an art especially in this rapidly changing job market. Your cover letter needs to open the door for you to get that all important interview. It introduces you and directly ties in your qualifications to what the potential employer is looking for – in other words – the awesome value you bring.
But slow down. Don’t start writing yet. These three steps come first – then the writing is easy. First, identify your key selling points and then condense each into a strong summary sentence. Second, do market research on your targeted potential employer – what are their needs and problems. Third, think about how you can be their solution to these issues – this is the value you bring to them.
Now you can do a draft cover letter. Keep it simple by remembering that your cover letter just needs to do these five things:
- Introduce Yourself
- Capture the Reader’s Interest in You
- Highlight & Link Your Qualifications to the Needs of the Reader
- Identify the Clear Value You Will Bring Upon Hire
- Motivate the Reader to Call You!
The Value of a Career Brand
Build your own career brand before someone else does it for you. And they will! Take control over how others see you, how they remember you and then if they want to do business with you. This is your reputation and a positive reputation is essential for a successful career. But it does take some real thought, time and commitment – and only you can do it.
Susan Whitcomb, founder of Career Coach Academy, identifies three “building blocks” we can use to start clarifying our own unique brand.
- First, think of the Adjectives that others would use to describe you. These are typically the soft interpersonal skills such as ethical, committed, motivated or level-headed.
- Second, think what Nouns or titles would be associated with you? These are the hard industry specific skills such as a strategist, a troubleshooter, a problem solver.
- Third, what Verbs would describe the value you bring? This is the result, impact or advantages you bring to your work.
The last step is to identify the key needs of your target marketplace and then how your brand aligns with these needs. Stay flexible and creative. Your brand will evolve and represent you at your best!
Holidays Are a Great Time to Connect With Others
The best part of the holiday season is time connecting with others. I’ve always found this true even when living in Norway, working full-time and raising two little ones. It’s often “wickedly busy” during the early part of December but the closer it gets to Christmas Day, the quieter work becomes here at the office.
That’s my time to connect with others – for coffee, lunch or a simple chat on the phone. And I find that’s generally true for others as well – fewer meetings are scheduled, workloads ease off a bit and people can catch their breath.
So here’s my holiday career tip for you:
Pick up the phone each day and call a favorite client to just say hi and wish them happy holidays. Keep it simple and genuine. You’re not asking for anything. You are just reconnecting.
People like to know that others are thinking about them. I like it as well – you can give me a call too!
Overcome “Recession Fatigue”
Here’s the best strategy I’ve found to push through that “Recession Fatigue”. It is simply shifting your energy to those areas that you do have some control over and concentrating on being successful in those areas over the next few months.
Here’s a way to do that . . .
First. Take a piece of paper and draw out the five Olympic Circles. You will remember that there are five intersecting circles – three on the top and two on the bottom. Next, take a moment to think of the five areas of your current life that you value spending your time and energy on. Often these are areas that in the past you regretted not having the time to spend doing.
Areas such as: your own health (exercise, eating well etc.); learning by taking a class; picking up a new hobby or volunteer commitment; having more time with your children; mini-vacations with old friends or maybe more quality involvement with your elderly parents.
Pick what’s important to you in this chapter of your life. Now, label each circle with one of those areas.
Second. Identify priority short-term benchmarks in each of these areas. Be concrete – is there a weight goal? A sports fitness goal? A passion you want to nurture? Do you want to be more available to your parents, your own kids or your friends? Keep the short-term benchmarks easy to remember and to track.
Third. Now identify when you will know that you have hit those benchmarks – when you’ve made your first short-term goal on exercising; learning; volunteering or extra time with your own kids and parents. What will success look like? And don’t forget to celebrate when you’ve reached those successes each and every time!
It’s great (and critical) to feel productive, appreciated and successful in these additional areas of your life. So even if this recession is beating you up on the job more than you expected, you can take control of other areas, and enjoy a wonderful boost of self-confidence from these other equally important areas of your life.