3 Steps To Help You To Speak Up and To Give Your Boss a Chance to Respond
Learning Resources From School of WorkLife. Resources to help you self-direct your WorkLife learning.
One reason that workers become unhappy at work is bad management. A bad boss can turn even a good working environment into an uncomfortable and unhappy workplace.
They are in a position of power, you, however, are not powerless, BUT you do need to take responsibility to speak up in an attempt to change the situation.
An essential strategy is to Speak Up: Having a frank conversation with your boss about the problem in a calm and professional manner can help you work towards resolving it.
Yes, there are bosses who are inherently bad and misuse their position of power, but there are also bosses who have lost their way and are behaving out of character, and there are bosses who are unaware of the impact of their behaviour.
The way in which you approach the conversation will be dependent on your relationship.
The key thing is to prepare and to approach it from an objective standpoint.
To do this, you need to:
Step 1:
Put yourself in their shoes to understand how they see the world and the workplace. To help with this, consider:
What keeps them up at night.
What challenges they’re facing.
What they’d love to do more of/less of on a daily basis.
Step 2:
Plan what you’re going to say:
Be clear on the points you want to get across and the overall objective you want to achieve from the meeting.
Step 3:
Be prepared for obstacles/objections:
Arrange a time to talk, keep it brief and to the point. Some bosses want to know the agenda before the meeting, and others don’t. Work with their preferences.
Anticipate their reaction/argument/defence — having put yourself in their shoes and planning what you need to say, you’ll be forearmed to deal with this.
The important thing is to speak up and to give your boss a chance to respond.
Speaking up rather than cowering in silence for fear of an awkward conversation takes courage, but you owe that to yourself and your boss.
Having a genuine desire to work collaboratively to make things work better can open the door to a new level of respect and trust.
A door that will remain permanently closed otherwise.
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POSTSCRIPT
This story was originally published on 28/6/21. I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLifehelps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Series to view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
How to Come up With a Good Idea That Gives You a Renewed Zest For Life
Learning Resources From School of WorkLife. Resources to help you self-direct your WorkLife learning.
Life After Redundancy What Next?
The Good News: With Creative Thinking and Strategic Planning, You Can Move to the Next Stage of Your Worklife with a Renewed Zest for Life
It is disturbing for anyone to lose their job, particularly after years of service. During the current economic climate, a number of industries have been so severely impacted that people are having to reinvent themselves to consider completely different WorkLife paths, and many are setting up in business themselves, which may seem a risky prospect taking into account the current state of the economy. It certainly needs a good idea and an effective business plan to make a successful venture.
But how do you go about coming up with that ‘good idea’? Well, let me tell you Tim’s story.
Tim was made redundant from his role in Human Resources in the Educational Sector. Now, of course, Tim’s skills were quite transferable across sectors, but he was actually thinking of doing something new, and he considered the redundancy payout he’d received a gift, and he wanted to ensure he invested it in the best possible business venture, one that would be fulfilling for him and sustain him and his family in both the short and long term.
We talked about his interests and hobbies, one of which is scale model making, an unusual idea you may be thinking but sometimes the more unusual and unique the idea, the easier it is to research.
So Tim went about researching his idea, and in the meantime, he kept himself busy with a little painting and decorating for his own home and also for friends and family who were happy to engage his services to carry out work they themselves didn’t have the time or inclination to do.
Well, as I’ve come to learn, once you have an awareness of what you want, you’ll begin to see opportunities in the most unexpected of places. It’s just like when you buy a new silver Mercedes (I wish), all of a sudden you’ll see silver Mercedes everywhere.
Well, true to this belief, Tim discovered a woman who had an established scale model making business who was due to retire, and he bought the business from her.
This was a good brand with an established customer base and great potential. The woman didn’t use computers and, as a result, didn’t utilise the web. Tim has built an effective web marketing plan into his business plan, and with hard work and a fair wind, it should provide a nice income stream to supplement his savings and investments. The good thing is the margins are lucrative, and the costs are low.
On top of that, Tim has become a School Parent Governor at his daughter’s school, which he’s finding interesting and he’s enjoying applying past learnt management and people skills in a new context.
The moral of this story: There is life after redundancy, and with creative thinking and strategic planning, you can move to the next stage of your WorkLife with a renewed zest for life.
The stories I write are based on real WorkLife challenges, obstacles and successes. In some stories I share my own experiences, and with permission stories of people I’ve worked with, whose names have been changed to protect their anonymity. Other persons and companies portrayed in the stories are not based on real people or entities.
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POSTSCRIPT
This story was originally published on 24/6/21. I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLifehelps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Serieshelpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Series to view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
Because I think self-publishing is a good option for e-books.
I then worked with a publishing company on my next paperback, WorkLife Book Club.
Why?
Because I want to experience how that will be.
And also, the company belongs to the editor I worked with on my other books.
My first book, when I took the cork out of the bottle, led to many more books and to a relationship with a publisher.
It also led to many stories that I share on my website blog and on platforms for writers.
All of this happened because I took the cork out of the bottle of something I wanted to release and then I gave it a chance to breathe.
Have you an experience of taking a cork out of a bottle?
Or do you have a bottle you want to take a cork out of?
The stories I bring you are created from questions and answers drawn from WorkLife lessons. What I’m trying to do is to highlight different answers, to provide you with a pathway so that even if a particular story doesn’t apply to you, you understand there is a path to follow.
Whatever you want to do, there is a clear path to it, and once you understand those steps, it becomes much more intuitive, and perhaps it even gives you the courage to get started. Because that’s what you need most, the courage to get started. The courage to take the cork out of the bottle.
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POSTSCRIPT
This story was originally published on 23/6/21. I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLifehelps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Series to view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
Three Lessons Learnt From Times Of Change and Uncertainty Gone By
Learning Resources From School of WorkLife. Resources to help you self-direct your WorkLife learning.
I left Investment Banking in 2003.
Was it a Great Resignation?
I can’t say it was, but I can say it was greatly significant.
During my 12+ years in Investment Banking, I had always worked on a freelance basis, on three-month rolling contracts that could be ended with a two week notice period by either party. In 2003, there was a slowing in the market, and the bank decided to end much of their contract work in order to make the jobs of permanent staff more secure. I was offered a permanent position, which I declined. It was the push I needed. And so my resignation couldn’t be called a great resignation, but it could be called greatly significant.
Why?
Because it was the beginning of a new WorkLife chapter, which has gotten me to where I am today.
It took a little time, though, because first, I needed to figure out what I would do next. Which was to become a WorkLife learning practitioner and writer, helping people manage, develop and transition their WorkLives. That required getting my degree in Career Coaching and Management. It was quite a balancing act working to bring in much-needed income, which I did by facilitating workshops while studying and gaining practical experience that would allow me to launch my new WorkLife.
This brings me to:
Lesson One of Three Lessons Learnt From Times Of Change and Uncertainty Gone By.
1. We can overestimate what we can achieve in one year and underestimate what we can achieve in three years and beyond.
Fast forward to 2006, and I’m working with people who were part of the Great Resignation movement of that time. People who were willing to take a risk on leaving a job that wasn’t fulfilling to them, to go in search of a new WorkLife that aligned with what was important to them — both in and out of work.
Why were they willing to take this risk?
Because at that time, it was a buoyant job market, and this helped mitigate the risk. If things didn’t work out, or if things didn’t happen as quickly as needed, they could go back to what they were doing or get another job in the interim.
Within two years, those good times came crashing down when we hit the recession of 2008 and beyond. Those that kept their jobs hung on to them for dear life. Those who lost their jobs, who wanted to get back into full-time employment, began the challenge to make that happen. And those, who like me, figured the loss of their job was the push they needed to do something different started working to make that happen.
My work shifted to delivering Outplacement programmes, helping people make the transition that was right for them, whether that was getting back into the workplace in a similar role or beginning something new.
This wasn’t a time of Great Resignations but Forced Redundancies.
For this story, I will focus on the learning I gained from the people who began a new WorkLife chapter.
This brings me to:
Lesson Two of Three Lessons Learnt From Times Of Change and Uncertainty Gone By.
“There’s a saying that if you do what you love, you will never work a day in your life. The truth is you will work harder than you ever thought possible, but the tools will feel light in your hands.” Tim Cook
This is because all the time, you will be carving out the WorkLife that fits your wants and needs.
Fast forward to the present day. So much has shifted in the last year. People have come to realise that the world we live in is not secure, and trusting your future to an organisation, even if it’s a good organisation, doesn’t make it safe. If you love your job and want to keep doing it, you may also want to build something for yourself, perhaps a side hustle that will give you extra security. And if you don’t love your job, perhaps now is the push you need to make your Great Resignation.
This brings me to:
Lesson Three of Three Lessons Learnt From Times Of Change and Uncertainty Gone By.
You Have Much of What You Need Within You, and What You Don’t Have, You Will Be Able to Find or Figure Out.
For example, over the last year, I couldn’t deliver the live learning workshops I had planned, so I wrote 27 e-books, which I’ve called The School Of WorkLife book series. The series is designed to help people manage their WorkLife learning and transitions through times of change and uncertainty. Through good times and bad times. To help people navigate their pathways, to be ready for the Big Resignation, should that be the next chapter of their WorkLife story.
And I had much of what I needed within me to do that. I’ve been a collector of people’s amazing WorkLife stories since 2003 when I made my significant resignation. Since then, I’ve also created many learning programmes.
In writing the books, I simply told people’s powerful stories of WorkLife challenges and successes. I shared the exercises which helped navigate these situations, which I presented as learning assignments for people to work through.
I worked with an editor in self-publishing the e-books, and that led me to work with his publishing company on my next paperback,WorkLife Book Club.
If I can do it, so can you, and you never know where your new WorkLife chapter will lead you, and what doors and opportunities will open along the way.
Tap the link below to see the books in The School Of WorkLife series.
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POSTSCRIPT
This story was originally published on 21/6/21. I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLife helps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Series to view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
What Makes an Interview Question a Good Insightful Question?
Learning Resources From School of WorkLife. Resources to help you self-direct your WorkLife learning.
Part of a series of stories of weird questions people were asked at interviews, how they answered them, and what the interviewer may have been looking for in asking these questions. This series also considers what makes a question, a good question from the point of view of being an insightful question.
How Would You Count the Hairs on a Cat?
William was asked this question when he was interviewing for a project management role at an investment bank in the City of London. He was given a pen and paper, and calculator to work it out! He was thankful for this because it gave him time to gather his thoughts, and while he didn’t calculate, he did scribble down a few thoughts.
His answer was: “I’d weigh one hair, then shave the cat and weigh all the hair I shaved off, I’d then divide the overall hair weight by the individual hair weight to get the number of hairs on the cat.” He got the job!
What the interviewers were looking for was a candidate who could demonstrate their ability to think on the spot, showing creativity and intuitiveness as well as logical and practical thinking, including how they would go about solving difficult and even unusual challenges that might arise, and also to have conviction in their answer and the confidence to communicate this. The interviewers were more interested in how candidates got to an answer, as opposed to what the answer might be.
Such challenging questions are becoming ever more commonplace in interviews it seems, as employers seek to get past the polish to hire the best candidate. With so many self-help websites, candidates can be quite polished on standard interview questions, making it difficult for people to stand out if they ask the routine questions. So doing things differently will help them get to the best candidate, or so the thinking goes.
I asked William how easy it was for him to know how to answer this type of question, and if there’s anything he does to help him prepare. He told me that he loves to think about things in different ways and to explore the hidden side of everything. He went on to share this:
Book Wisdom
The book Freakonomicsby Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner is described as a rogue economist exploring the hidden side of everything, saying it’s all about using information about the world around us to get to the heart of what’s really happening under the surface of everyday life.
They talk about building the chapters around admittedly freakish questions, such as: “What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?” They say: “If you ask enough questions, strange as they seem at the time, you may eventually learn something worthwhile.”
They go on to say: “The first trick of asking questions is to determine if your question is a good one. Just because a question has never been asked does not make it good. Smart people have been asking questions for quite a few centuries now, so many of the questions that haven’t been asked are bound to yield some uninteresting answers.
“But if you can question something that people really care about and find an answer that may surprise them — that is, if you can overturn the conventional wisdom — then you may have some luck.”
In researching this story, and as part of my ongoing research into considering what makes a question an insightful question, I came across these:
Words of Wisdom
If you’re on the other side of the table (the interviewee) you’ll need an arsenal of questions, too. Because at some point you’ll be asked: Do you have any questions for me? Lori Goler, VP of People at Facebook.
Goler goes on to share the following:
Sage Wisdom
The question “What is your biggest problem and can I help solve it?” is a question she posed when she cold-called Sheryl Sandberg. She was hoping to land a job, any job at Facebook. When Sheryl responded “Recruiting, we have amazing people, and we want to continue to build the team.” Despite never having worked as a recruiter, Goler jumped at the opportunity; and after a few months working as a recruiter, when the head of HR moved to a different team, Goler moved into the role. She has been Facebook’s head of Recruiting and HR ever since.
Epilogue
William’s interview was some years ago now. A more recent HubSpot blog post, says: “Hiring managers have heard about using these curveball questions to identify the best candidates. Fortunately, for intelligent and qualified candidates everywhere, studies have found that the brainteaser interview questions made famous by Silicon Valley and Wall Street are just as silly as they sound.” It goes on to say: “There’s a need to get creative in asking questions to understand if, for example, a candidate is a team player.”
Because of my interest in insightful questions, this is a subject I’ll come back to again.
Today I leave you with the question:
What is an important question for you to have in your arsenal of questions to get your foot in the door of a company you aspire to work at?
Use the self-feedback that comes to you through reflecting on this question, to build your arsenal of questions for all of the opportunities you want to pursue in your WorkLife.
Today’s featured book is: Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner
WorkLife Book Wisdom Stories:
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their WorkLife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their WorkLife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their WorkLife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
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POSTSCRIPT
This story was originally published on 16/6/21. I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLife helps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Series to view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
A Short Story About How to Use a Speculative Approach to Keep Work Flowing
Learning Resources From School of WorkLife. Resources to help you self-direct your WorkLife learning.
The answer to do speculative job approaches work, is a resounding YES.
Let me tell you a short story about why speculative job approaches are important to keep work flowing.
As a friend of The Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, I was invited along for a tour of the theatre, followed by tea and a chat with a couple of the actors from the play ‘Great Britain’ which was playing at the time.
The actors were asked how they go about getting work and if they rely solely on their agent. They both said that while their agents are instrumental in their work, by and large. That they had both approached directors and writers (both stage and screen) whose work they admire and respect to express a desire to work with them.
And guess what – it paid off!
The job market is a volatile place, and with that comes uncertainly. Whether you’re employed or self-employed, speculatively approaching people and companies whose work you admire and respect to express a desire to work with them, is important in establishing relationships, for them to consider you for work in the near or distant future, at a time that is right for you and them.
The stories I write are based on real WorkLife challenges, obstacles and successes. In some stories, I share my own experiences, and with permission, stories of people I’ve worked with, whose names have been changed to protect their anonymity. Other persons and companies portrayed in the stories are not based on real people or entities.
This story was originally published on 20/6/21 I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLife helps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Serieshelpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Seriesto view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
A Simple Story About How to Use a Speculative Approach to Transition Into a New Role
Learning Resources From School of WorkLife. Resources to help you self-direct your WorkLife learning.
Do Speculative Job Applications Actually Work? The Answer Is a Resounding YES.
However, I have no intention of misleading you here. It may involve sending out hundreds of letters before it brings about one conversation that leads to an interview and on to securing a role.
In some professions, speculative approached are actually the only way things happen as quite often jobs don’t get advertised – the old hidden job market!
But are speculative approaches acceptable across all industries/sectors?
Well, I happen to think so.
To prove my point, I’ll tell you a story about Sean, who designed his speculative approach campaign to target the Public Sector and why this is important.
Sean decided he wanted to move into the Public Sector. He wasn’t just looking for another job within the Public Sector. He actually wanted to transition from the Private Sector — no mean feat by any standards, considering the Public Sector promote equality and fairness in their job selection process. As a result, all positions will be advertised.
Sean speculatively approached a Government department for a job, not an advertised position but an enquiry, letting them know why he thought his skills, experience, and attributes gained working in the Private Sector would be valuable to that department.
Sean’s approach didn’t receive an immediate response, and he went about his business. Then out of the blue and several months later, he got a call to say that while they don’t usually accept speculative approaches, his letter and CV had impressed them, and they now had a position they considered he would be suitable for and invited him to apply.
His application was successful, and he was invited along for an interview.
This was a stringent interview process, as you would expect in the Public Sector.
Long story short, having been put through his paces, Sean secured the role.
Therein lies my case that speculatively approaching organisations for work is important. It can help you get onto their radar to be considered for a position when a role becomes available. And so, yes, speculative job approaches do actually work.
The stories I write are based on real WorkLife challenges, obstacles and successes. In some stories, I share my own experiences, and with permission, stories of people I’ve worked with, whose names have been changed to protect their anonymity. Other persons and companies portrayed in the stories are not based on real people or entities.
This story was originally published on 13/6/21. I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLife helps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Seriesto view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
How to Apply Lessons From Reading to Your WorkLife Learning Needs
Inspector Montalbano by Andrea Camilleri, accompanied by a cup of coffee
When we came out of lockdown, I welcomed visiting a café to sit and read awhile over a book and a coffee.
I began reading Inspector Montalbano by Andrea Camilleri during isolation. I delightfully discovered Inspector Montalbano Detective serieson TV. I decided to create a sense of purpose before watching, so I first read each book and then watched the episode. This helped me get so much more from the stories.
I write about the wisdom people take from books that helps their WorkLife learning.
So, what wisdom did I glean from reading mystery books and how was this helpful in my WorkLife?
Camilleri’s novels breathe out the sense of place.
I needed to learn how to do this for my book WorkLife Book Club.
Montalbano’s gastronomic preferences add a sense of quirkiness and humour to the stories.
I needed to learn how to write about food and drink as the Book Club goes on a culinary tour of Shoreditch– the setting for the book.
Reading the books helped me so much in achieving these learning needs.
I loved the use of dream as narrative to reveal Montalbano’s deepest needs and desires. Prompting him to question if his subconscious mind was trying to tell him something and to pay attention to his feelings.
In my work, I strive to convey the importance of self-awareness in trusting our gut instinct.
Andrea Camilleri began writing Detective Fiction in his late sixties. There is much of his truth, beliefs and values in the books.
He said that social commentary was always his aim. He deliberately smuggled a critical account of the social and political situations of his times into the stories through subtext. This also allowed him to show the progression and evolution in the character of Montalbano.
I strive to smuggle my truth, beliefs and values into my stories in a way that progresses each character.
It helps to be a book lover as a writer, author, storyteller and creator because learning through reading is so important to my craft.
Oh and I love Detective Fiction – it’s one of my favourite genres – I have a few.
I leave you with a few questions to reflect upon. I encourage you to journal on the answers that come to you.
Insightful self-questions and effective self-feedback will help you self-direct your WorkLife learning needs in the areas that are important to you.
3 questions to help you Learn Through Reading to then apply those lessons to your WorkLife learning needs:
What’s your favourite genre?
How does reading help you in your profession?
What wisdom have you taken from books that helped your WorkLife learning needs?
The book I read over coffee was The Patience of the Spider (The Inspector Montalbano Mysteries Book 8) by Andrea Camilleri.
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School of WorkLife helps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Series to view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
How to Apply Lessons From Reading to Your WorkLife Learning Needs
A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre read sitting on a park bench, accompanied by an M&S coffee and Victoria sponge
I took A Spy Among Friendsby Ben Macintyreto sit and read awhile over an M&S coffee and Victoria sponge on a park bench in Finsbury Circus park over the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Weekend.
The book tells the story of Kim Philby, who was the most notorious British defector and Soviet mole in history.
Philby’s two closest friends in the intelligence world, Nicholas Elliott of MI6 and James Jesus Angleton, the CIA intelligence chief, thought they knew Philby better than anyone and then discovered they had not known him at all.
Flora Solomon was a long-term friend of Philby. He proposed to her that she might become a Soviet agent. At the same time, his friend, Guy Burgess, was trying to recruit her into MI6. Had both moves succeeded, she would have become a double agent. Solomon was instrumental in exposing Philby as a Russian spy.
Solomon was the first woman hired to improve working conditions at Marks and Spencer. She worked as a store detective, uncovering bad practices. She pioneered the development of the staff welfare system, including subsidised medical services. This directly influenced the Labour concept of the welfare state and the creation of the British National Health Service in 1948.
As I sat reading my book while enjoying M&S fare, I loved discovering Solomon’s story. I loved connecting the past to the present. I almost expected someone to sit next to me on the park bench and say, “The birds will be flying high tomorrow” Disappointedly, no one did.
I love discovering connections. Connections are what stories are all about. As a creator of WorkLife learning resources, writer of stories and author of the School of WorkLife Book Series, fine-tuning my ability to make connections is important in self-directing my WorkLife learning.
I also love learning the stories behind the story That’s because I find it interesting to understand what impacted people throughout their WorkLife – the situations they encountered and how their characteristics influenced the choices they made.
And I love learning the stories of the behind the scenes/support characters – people who come across as perhaps unassuming, who shun the spotlight and are much more at ease behind the scenes. I find their stories can be quite fascinating.
I recently watched the TV production of A Spy Among Friends. The dark tale of how Philby used friendship as a weapon played out intriguingly over martinis, cricket and, of course, a park bench (or two).
I was reminded of when I heard Ben Macintyre give a talk about the Spy Novels he’s written. He shared stories that demonstrated truth is stranger than fiction.
For the most part I like to read a book before I watch the TV, Film or Stage production. Although oftentimes I discover books through these mediums. And truth be told, whichever initial approach I take, when I follow through with the other approach it increases the learning I take from the story – in that I’m more observant in noticing more of the detail – the subtext of what’s going on within the characters and the situations. I get a greater sense of the real or true story from different perspectives. That’s enlightening and helps develop my power of self-awareness and observation.
Soft skills that are both superpowers in my book. Both are so important in fine-tuning my ability to self-direct my WorkLife learning. They help me to be more sensitive to what’s going on in the moment in WorkLife situations – the subtext of what’s going on within people and situations. They also help me reflect more deeply after the event. I like to have a debrief with myself to mull things over. This helps me get a sense of what went well and what didn’t go well.
I do this by simply reflecting on the following questions:
What went well that I want to keep and build upon to be even better?
What went OK but needs some tweaks to be even better?
What didn’t go well that I want to drop or change?
I journal on the answers that come to me by way of self-feedback.
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I love non-fiction that reads like fiction.
I also love fiction that reads like non-fiction.
So, I’m writing a series of Learn Through Non-Fiction and a series of Learn Through Fiction stories.
This is the first story in the Learn Through Non-Fiction series.
Tomorrow’s story will be the first in the Learn Through Fiction series.
My intention is to share one story in each series every weekend.
Saturday will be Learn Through Non-Fiction day.
Sunday will be Learn Through Fiction day.
Musings from me that I hope you will find helpful.
Short reads that I hope you will enjoy in a relaxed way over a cup of tea or coffee, that will also stimulate ideas that will help you self-direct your WorkLife learning needs through the power of lessons taken from the wisdom of a good book.
Oh, and I love a Spy Thriller – it’s one of my favourite genres – I have a few.
I leave you with a few questions to reflect upon. I encourage you to journal on the answers that come to you.
Insightful self-questions and effective self-feedback will help you self-direct your WorkLife learning needs in the areas that are important to you.
3 questions to help you Learn Through Reading to then apply those lessons to your WorkLife learning needs:
What’s your favourite genre?
Do you have experiences of reading something from the past that connected to the moment you were in?
School of WorkLifehelps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Seriesto view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
How to Read the Situation In the Moment in All WorkLife Interactions
Learning Resources From School of WorkLife. Resources to help you self-direct your WorkLife learning.
Body Language Speech Patterns and the 7/38/55 Principle in WorkLife Interactions is part of a series of people’s stories about how the ability to read the situation and the other side in the moment is key in all WorkLife interactions: from exchanges to conversations, conflict to cooperation, differences to understanding, refusals to negotiations, and much, much more.
Body Language Speech Patterns and the 7/38/55 Principle in WorkLife Interactions: A Case Study
Charlie wasn’t happy with how his first meeting had gone. He had been tasked with helping to improve morale within his department, but he’d come away from the meeting feeling he’d achieved absolutely nothing.
But let’s back up a little to understand how Charlie found himself in this situation.
Morale at the auto-parts factory Charlie worked at had never been great. The general consensus among workers was that it was a job, no more, no less. People were thankful to have a job, especially within this industry which had been impacted by so many downturns in the economy, causing downsizing in many companies. Workers turned up for their shift, did what was required of them — no more, no less, that was about it really.
Oscar as new plant manager wanted to turn this around. He wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on — what people were thinking and feeling, and why they were thinking and feeling this. He felt the person to uncover this needed to come from within the organisation, rather than bringing in an outside consultant. He believed people would be more open to someone they knew and trusted as opposed to being closed and non-trusting to someone external — who would most likely have been viewed as a trouble-shooter, and people would be suspecting of the motive behind this.
Oscar chose Charlie for this role, simply because he was an affable person, his warmth and friendliness drew people to him, and there was mutual respect between him and his co-workers. Oscar didn’t have a budget to facilitate any training Charlie would need, instead he made himself available as a coach and mentor to help him through the process.
After his first meeting with Xavier, Charlie went to Oscar for help. He felt Xavier was holding back. When Charlie had asked him how things were going, Xavier had responded ‘OK’, but his tonality and body language didn’t match the words he was saying. Charlie didn’t know how to get beyond this to get Xavier to open up about how he was really thinking and feeling, which was the task Oscar had set him.
Oscar shared the following:
Sage Wisdom
“What you do doesn’t depend on you — it depends on the other fellow.” Sanford Meisner
Having been involved in the drama society at college, Oscar had become interested in the principles of the Meisner technique and how they could be applied in WorkLife. He recommended a book that he believed would be helpful to Charlie, and suggested they meet in a few days to work through the first exercise from the book, by way of helping Charlie to prepare for his next meeting with Xavier.
Book Wisdom
The book was Meisner in Practiceby Nick Moseley. Moseley says: “Meisner exercises are designed to strip away the artificiality of theatre and return you to one of your most basic human abilities — to receive and respond to messages from others, and allow the actions of others to be the principle determinant of how you yourselves act.”
Charlie read through the book, but as the belief within the world of performing arts is “Acting is doing”, Charlie and Oscar met to work through the first exercise:
Mechanical Repetition
Moseley says:
“In the first exercise, you and another actor sit on chairs facing each other, at a distance from one another that allows you to see not just the face of your partner, but their whole body. After a while, one of you makes a simple statement about something you notice about the other actor. This will be a physical, irrefutable fact, such as ‘red socks.’ The other actor repeats the phrase back to you exactly as you have said it, copying your intonation, volume and pronunciation exactly. You then do the same, repeating not what you think you said the first time, but what you hear from the other actor, and so it goes on until the teacher stops the exercise.
“With this understanding, you can embark on the first and simplest of the Meisner repetition exercises.
“The purpose of this exercise is to create a situation in which your only guiding principle in moving the encounter forward is the instruction to reproduce what you hear as exactly as possible. This forces you to listen and to process, so that what emerges is directly influenced by the stimulus the other actor has given you. This is the first step in allowing the other actor, rather than yourself, to determine your actions.
“The beauty of the first exercise lies in its simplicity. It is a task that is well within your scope and yet requires enough of your attention to keep you interested and engaged. Each moment is different from the last, and each moment influences the next moment.”
Charlie enjoyed doing this exercise. The simplicity and slowness of it really helped him to be in the moment. He felt much more aware of what was going on in front of him. He also felt much more grounded, all of which gave him a quiet confidence ahead of his meeting with Xavier.
Oscar shared these:
Words of Wisdom
Your ability to read the situation and your ability to shift your focus off yourself and pay attention to the other side, how they’re reacting to you in the situation, how they’re reacting to what you say, will allow you to begin to understand and question what you’re experiencing or what you’re sensing.
He went on to talk about the 7/38/55 principle about content, tonality and body language in the context of WorkLife interactions.
Oscarsaid to Charlie that in usingthe principle of the first Meisner exercise in his next meeting, Charlie could build on this by asking himself the following question throughout the meeting: “Does delivery and body language line up with the words been spoken?”; then to reflect in the moment on whatever comes to him, and to use self-feedback to know what to say next in response to what he’s received. For example, if it doesn’t line up, simply say: “I heard you say everything was OK, but I also heard something in your tone of voice that made you hesitate.”
Charlie was a little anxious that he wouldn’t pick up on these contradictions in the moment, saying that he considered himself to be a more reflective than an in-the-moment person. He went on to say that he often got a sense that things weren’t quite as they seemed, but that he struggled to call whatever that was in the moment. Oscar pointed out to him that he had in fact picked up on something in the meeting with Xavier, when immediately coming away from the meeting he had a sense that Xavier was holding back. He went on to say that being more reflective was good too, he could simply say to Xavier: “Reflecting on our last meeting, I got a sense that when you said everything was OK, that actually something wasn’t. This is because while I heard you say everything was OK, I also heard something in your tone of voice that made you hesitate.”
This is precisely how Charlie began his next meeting with Xavier.
Epilogue
Xavier was taken aback by Charlie’s words and hesitated for a few moments before responding. When he did speak, he said he didn’t see the point to all of this; morale at the plant had never been great, he was OK with that as far as it went, and that was what he had meant in his response to Charlie’s question.
This simple truth telling on Xavier’s part actually gave Charlie a lot of information. It reaffirmed what Charlie believed many of his co-workers were thinking and feeling. He knew he needed to find a way to move beyond this and that this would take time. What was different for Charlie in this meeting was that he had a greater confidence within himself to say what he was sensing in the moment. Knowing that when he couldn’t call what he was sensing ‘in the moment’, he could simply say: “I heard you say everything was OK, but I also heard something in your tone of voice that made you hesitate”. This instilled further confidence, as did knowing that it was OK for him to reflect on the meeting, and to come back and share his thinking and feeling from that at the next meeting as he’d done today.
The intention of the stories I share is to inspire you through people’s stories of their WorkLife experiences. Through these stories, you will learn about people’s dreams and ambitions, along with the challenges, obstacles, failures and successes they encountered along the road of their WorkLife journey. And how they used the power of book wisdom to help them find the inspiration and guidance to navigate their path to live their WorkLife with passion, purpose and pride.
My hope is that these book wisdom stories will help you throughout the chapters of your WorkLife Story.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
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POSTSCRIPT
This story was originally published on 25/6/21. I needed to republish it to add updates and also to tell you
… The Continuing Story …
The pandemic brought about a change in my WorkLife from delivering in-person individual coaching sessions and group workshops to creating resources to help people self direct their WorkLife learning.
In the last three years, I’ve published 30 books and over 200 stories.
Each book and each story is based on real life struggles and successes that people have encountered in their WorkLife. They also detail the exercises that helped navigate through these situations, which are set as assignments for readers to adapt to their WorkLife situations and learning needs.
I believe stories are a powerful mechanism for teaching, a powerful medium to learn through, and a powerful way to communicate who you are and what you stand for.
My inspiration for creating my work comes from a lifelong passion for learning. My work has taught me that the one thing in life that can never be taken away from you is your learning.
School of WorkLife Guiding Statement: To create resources that are helpful, insightful and inspiring in helping people to pursue their WorkLives with greater clarity, purpose, passion and pride by creating continuous WorkLife learning programmes and resources that are accessible to everyone.
The resources I create will help you take ownership of self directing your learning in your own space and in your own time.
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
School of WorkLife helps you self-direct your WorkLife learning through resources that have been created to help you to take ownership of your learning in your own space and in your own time.
What is Self Directed Learning?
Self-Directed Learning is when an individual is motivated to take the initiative and responsibility on decisions related to their own learning. It is a series of independent actions and judgements free from external control and constraint.
Resources to Help You Self-Direct Your Learning
You may find the books below from The School of WorkLife Book Series helpful in meeting your learning needs as a self directed learner. Tap the book title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
TapThe School of WorkLife Book Series to view the complete collection of books. From here, you can tap on each individual title to see a preview of what’s inside each book.
Carmel O’ Reilly is a learning practitioner and writer. She creates resources to help people self-direct their WorkLife learning
That’s the power of writing (and reading, which is an integral part of the craft for writers). It helps you find, develop and tell the right story at the right time in all WorkLife situations – in day-to-day communication: WorkLife and feedback conversations, presentations, talks, and negotiations, at interviews, and when socialising and networking in building and maintaining good relationships. The practice of writing helps you to tell the stories that express who you are in an interesting and engaging way.
