Do you want to show up more creatively for your clients and your colleagues, your family, and your friends?
Do you want to default to thinking about opportunity versus focusing just on problems?
Discovering Hope is full of proactive steps you can take right now, to achieve a more positive mindset or to help maintain the positivity you already have
Getting Positive reveals that more optimism is close at hand
Stuart Parkin
Shepley Parkin Award / Kings College London
Congratulations to Nikki Kerderagi Small, the inaugural winner of the Shepley Parkin Award,
for second year medical students at Kings College Hospital London.
For the last several years we at SPARKIN have focused on promoting empathetic ability
in the media business but understanding the perspective of others is key for all areas of society,
one key example, medicine. To that end, we’re excited to announce a ten year commitment of
a thousand pounds per annum to promote the importance of empathy, by rewarding a medical
student that has proven themselves not simply to be bright but truly effective when it comes to
hearing/understanding others, so crucial for effective patient care. Read about the award and
recipient Nikki here.
https://www.kcl.ac.uk/kings-student-wins-shepley-parkin-empathy-award
The biggest Threat to Agencies and Your Jobs
Planners and strategists, “Agencies are scrambling to attract talent amid shortage.” The article summarizes that talent shortages exist because: https://bit.ly/37gVRkn
– Skills shortage – A lack of the right skills,
– Greater flexibility/virtual – ‘Talent’ wanting greater flexibility
– Burn out – employees wanting to get out of the business.
What the article doesn’t mention is the core reason for this talent shortage, a breakdown of the psychological contract,
a phrase coined decades past highlighting, ‘to maintain a positive employee-employer relationship employers pay particular attention to the ‘human side’ of a working relationship, rather than the purely commercial or transactional side.’
Yes, the problem for the business is short termism, which is why agencies increasingly use freelancers, treating people like commodities; Even when they are full time, (again due to short termism) there has been a chronic lack of willingness to train/invest in the next generation of strategists.
The good news – For any planner seeking their next career challenge, there are many great people in this business and some basic rules for identifying a great next career move for you, beyond that is, simply looking at the obvious names, this I’ll cover in my next newsletter.
Parkin Empathy Award Winner – Trevor Kroon
Creative Pressures and Positivity
Creativity typically requires a positive mindset and that is tough, particularly when you’re paid to be creative! “getting Positive’ aims to bring more positivity about. gettingpositivenow.com
A big thanks as ever to Enrique (Henry) Ahumada, for making the NY Strategic Planning bootcamp happen.Career Effectiveness = Mindset Change
There’s no such thing as a career any more. Not quite true but certainly, rapidly changing times require a changed mindset. Think (whether employee or not) that you’re managing your own business: Reputation/time/problem solving expertise.
https://lnkd.in/dbw2-aM
#ownbusiness #careerchanges #mindsetmastery
Discovering Hope
Particularly in 2020, how often do you hear people talk about hope and being hopeful or not. We all want things to be better, to be normal again but while hope is key for all of us, being hopeful is far from a passive exercise.
Published December 9th, ‘Discovering Hope,’ is a small book, full of practical ideas and actions which we can all take both to rediscover and maintain a more hopeful outlook. Enjoy
www.discoveringhopebook.com
(Available in the UK from Amazon, Waterstones and other leading retailers and the U.S from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, amongst others.)
#discoveringhopebook #proactive #takingaction
More Learning, Money, Opportunity, Fun – What is Key?
Personal and organisational success is directly related to the extent of training, formal employee reviews and on-going developmental feedback. The cold stark reality, there is very little formal training, performance reviews often delayed if they happen at all, which makes the manager we have and their desire and ability to develop others, key for our progression. Yet, as Brian Souza’s ‘The Weekly Coaching Conversation’ highlights, sub-par employee peformance is due primarily due to a lack of coaching/developmental feedback.. Categorizing managers: ‘Micromanager’, ‘Do-it-all’ manager (don’t trust team) ‘Nice guy/lady’ manager (care more about being liked than constructively directing) and Coach manager, (the one you might want to pursue) seek for personal and/or professional reasons, to develop others.
If you want to grow, if you want to be considered for the best opportunities, then when looking for an internal move or pursuing a new job, seek out the ‘Coach boss.’ I think this is particularly true for those starting out in the business, with relatively less experience and definitely, if you have to work from home.
Parkin Empathy Prize Winner – Vicoria Aldecocea
The ability to work seamlessly with creatives or for that matter clients, (or consumers) starts with a ‘determination’ and ability’ to effectively understand others. This ’empathetic’ gene is key for effective strategic problem solvers as it is for an effective society!
Many congratulations to “Victoria Aldecocea,” the newest (and 24th) Parkin ‘Empathy’ Award winner. ($1500 cash prize plus $500 coaching).
The award is judged by the students on the course as well as the strategists that teach the course; (Not the school; Not SPARKIN)
It was great to be able to individually zoom with each of the 15 students: Victoria Aldecocea, Blair Baker, Ben Berlin, Raphael Bussy, Leslie Collin, Jewelian Griffith, Anastasia Montoya, Dasha Ovsyannikova, John Pillsbury, Todd Reichman, Tierney Riccitelli, Marti Rosenberger, Nicholas Schneider, Vanessa Van Der Keyl and Emily Woodward. Thanks to all the teachers who also voted: Vanessa Cameron, Marta Insua, RP Kumar, Chris Kwak, Alejandro Oszust, Christopher Owens, Eric Pakurar, Carlos Roncajolo, Pete Scanlon and Patrick White. Finally, thanks to dynamic Manolo Garcia, Director of the San Francisco school.
#MiamiAdSchoolSanFranciscoAccountPlanningBootcamp #ParkinAward #CareerOptimisation #Careers #LifeSkills #SparkinSearch #Inclusive
Better Q’s = Better Answers
Basic facts are must haves, but better questions demand thought, from interviewor and interviewee alike and ‘often’ lead to better understanding. Try:
Don’t ask her how much she wants to make, ask her how she wants to grow
Don’t ask him where he wants to work, ask him what he wants to experience
Don’t ask them about a typical day, clarify which skills they want to focus on using
Don’t ask me what I’m looking for. Ask me what a dream scenario might be.
#Betterquestions + #BasicFacts = #Cleardirection