Start your morning with this affirmation:
Today’s checklist: Swap jobs instead of skills, be indispensable, and celebrate Father’s Day and Juneteenth.
OG Tuesday Issue #90
Jun 14, 2022
YOU DO YOU
Transferring Skills from Job to Job
Transferable skills are a hot topic in how-tos for applying to and landing new jobs. But what about actually doing the new job? How can you ensure you use and develop the skills you’ve already cultivated instead of losing them?
The short answer: You establish and own your authority on the transferable skill you value most.
Step 1: Choose one skill you care most about transferring to and developing in your new role. Brainstorm in delightful depth how you can and will use it in your new job. As you’re discussing problems or projects during meetings, approach ideas first through the lens of this core skill.
- How to pick a skill: Rebecca Beaton recommends first creating a list of all your skills and then ranking them. Her approach to ranking: “Once you have your list of transferable skills, organize them into three categories: ‘Enjoy using’, ‘Don’t enjoy using’, and ‘Neutral.’”
Step 2: Talk about (maybe even brag about) and offer to use your priority transferable skill every chance you get. The more you sell yourself as the absolute master in this skill, the more people will call on you to leverage it, and the more you’ll get to use it.
- How to humble brag: Figure out authentic ways to emphasize and talk about your skill by asking a friend or coworker to write a few sentences about your strengths and past achievements.
Step 3: Talk about (maybe even brag about) the benefits and results you’ve achieved by using your priority transferable skill.
- How to: Quantify the past results and benefits you’ve achieved and save some boilerplate lines to pull out of your pocket when needed, for example, after you’ve convinced your new team that you’re good at your priority skill and need to convince them that your priority skill will be good for them.
Bonus tip: Deepen your reputation for being an expert in your priority skill by getting a certificate, if you don’t already have one.
TOGETHER WITH GOODY
Pride Gifts That Give Back
🌈 Pride Month is here! It’s a time to celebrate – and to support the vital work being done by LGBTQ+ nonprofits 🙏.
That’s why Goody, the #1 gifting platform for EAs, has put together a special collection of Pride-themed gifts that all give back to the LGBTQ+ community.
Here are just a few Pride gifts in Goody’s collection:
- No Wrong Answers ($25), the trending, conversation-starting card game, is donating 10% of sales to Brave Space Alliance, a LGBTQ+ youth center serving the South Side of Chicago
- Lula’s Garden Pride Bliss Garden ($32), a beautiful succulent garden set, will direct 20% of proceeds to the Trevor Project
- Baked by Melissa’s 25-pack mini-cupcakes ($34) gives back 10% of sales to The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Community Center in NYC
Surprise your team with end-of-quarter gifts and support some amazing causes? What’s not to like 🤷🏻♀️?
Goody 💜 The Assist readers, so they’re ready to drop a $30 credit in your account to send your first gift. Sign up for free, and say you heard about Goody from The Assist.
Yes, I want $30 to send a thoughtful gift
LEVEL UP
Being Indispensable
Want to take the leap from “damn good at your job” to “absolutely and categorically indispensable to your company”?
Here’s what you can do to make yourself VITAL in all caps.
V – View every interaction as an opportunity to help someone to be indispensable thanks to your knack for community building.
This trait of “Superconnectors” is indispensable because it leads to strong communities that bring people together in ways that lead to better work. As Scott Gerber and Ryan Paugh phrase it in their preface to Superconnector: Stop Networking and Start Building Business Relationships that Matter: “People, not money, are your most important assets; great things in business happen when the right people come together.”
I – Initiate solutions, even when they call attention to your own failures and mistakes to be indispensable thanks to your commitment to problem-solving and collective success.
“We aren’t perfect, and when something falls through the cracks, goes awry, or you simply messed-up, own it,” writes an executive director in the Arizona State University Career and Professional Development Services blog. “Share with your supervisor immediately and take ownership along with sharing how you plan to fix or solve it.”
Doing this doesn’t just help solve the problem before it metastasizes, but it also reinforces that you can put company success and well-being above your ego.
T – Take team spirit seriously to be indispensable thanks to your inimitable inspirational and supportive qualities.
“Even though self-improvement and self-development are particularly important for being a great worker, it’s the team spirit and the aim to develop the firm as a whole that will make you indispensable,” writes Lara Hayes in her post on Medium.
A – Adopt a sustainable approach to managing and expanding your workload to be indispensable thanks to your consistency and ability to deliver quality while avoiding burnout.
As career coaching experts from Ama La Vida (ALV) point out in their blog post about being indispensable, agreeing to take on everything all the time might make you look good for a while, but it will also make you burn out before you know it. ALV blog writers recommend declining extra work you know you can’t comfortably take on while compromising by offering to help with one aspect of the work or assisting with some of the work.
L – Lead by always keeping one eye on your organization’s overall strategic goals to be indispensable for contributions that advance the company’s big-picture goals.
This list of questions from Zenger Folkman can help narrow your focus:
- What is the goal?
- What does the organization aspire to be?
- Will the change we’re contemplating bring us closer or take us further from that goal?
TOGETHER WITH BONUSLY
The Ultimate Retention Checklist for Managers
More than half of employees who have left a job say their manager could have done something to keep them around for longer 😬.
Get the free handy checklist for managers to retain top talent on their teams — you’ll get:
- ✅ An interactive PDF that yes, lets you literally check off boxes!
- 💡 Actionable tips to improve retention that can be put in action immediately.
- 🔄 Different areas of the employee lifecycle to focus on.
- ⚒️ New tools and resources to consider when working with your teams.
Yes, give me the free checklist
WATERCOOLER TALK
June 19: A Juneteenth and Father’s Day Double Header
Juneteenth
Juneteenth commemorates the day (June 19, 1865) that officially, rather than symbolically, ended slavery in the United States. On June 18, 2021, President Biden signed a proclamation naming it a national day of observance.
Juneteenth Quick Facts:
- While President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, slaves didn’t truly, in practice and in policy, become free until June 19, 1865, when Major General Gordon Granger delivered and read out General Order Number 3, which officially and enforceably ended the Civil War and enslavement.
- The first Juneteenth or “Jubilee Day” commemorations included barbecues, the singing of spiritual songs such as “Many Thousands Gone” and “Go Down Moses,” and setting off homemade fireworks, a.k.a trees filled with gunpowder.
- While Juneteenth officially commemorates the freeing of American slaves, other countries also commemorate it as a milestone in the worldwide struggle for emancipation.
How to Commemorate Juneteenth:
- Read The 1619 Project, created by Nikole Hannah-Jones.
- Read Juneteenth, by Ralph Ellison.
- Host a group discussion.
- Put up a Juneteenth yard sign.
- Do a race equity challenge.
- Commemorate the day on social media.
- Participate in local events.
Father’s Day
Father’s Day is coming up on Sunday, June 19! Don’t forget a thoughtful gift, one that suits the unique dad style you love so much in your father or the father in your life.
A rugged multi-tool for camping and things.
What he’ll say: “Now there’s an efficient design.”
A rustic leather journal for writing deep thoughts and other things.
What he’ll say: “My grandfather had a journal just like this,” possibly with a tear in his eye.
A biography of Mark Twain for learning about the man considered by some to be one of history’s greatest dads
What he’ll say: “I always kind of thought Mark and I would be friends.”
A cocktail smoking gift for combining the art of fire and mixology.
What he’ll say: Nothing because he’ll probably be too busy testing out the torch.
A DIY mini toolbox for just being adorable.
What he’ll say: “Wow. It’s just the right size for my…pushpins!”
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SPILL THE TEA
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