Category: Tips for Non-Profits,

Creating Clarity, Removing Barriers, and Finding the Right People – Rethinking Job Descriptions

Paul Wagenaar

What if some of the biggest barriers in hiring are created before anyone even applies?

“Must thrive in a fast-paced environment.” “Must be a people person.” “We’re looking for a rock star.”

What do these phrases actually mean?

A good job description should create clarity, not confusion. It should describe the work, what success looks like, what someone genuinely needs to know on day one, and what we are prepared to teach.

Maybe the goal isn’t to find the perfect applicant. Maybe it’s to give the right people an opportunity to show us what they can bring.

It’s Not About Agreeing. It’s About Deciding for Yourself.

Paul Wagenaar

We spend a lot of our lives being told what we should do.

Parents, teachers, friends, partners, bosses, mentors, advisors, their experience and opinions can be valuable. But listening isn’t the same as surrendering our decision.
Sometimes the most important question isn’t “What should I do?” but “What am I actually deciding?”

Pause. Question. Reframe. Consider the consequences. Then decide.

Not because nobody else has anything valuable to say, but because their voice shouldn’t replace yours.

Choosing a Different Way

Paul Wagenaar

We move at the speed of trust.

I may be one of the few career advisors who regularly encourage job seekers to break the rules.

Not because I don’t understand them.

Because sometimes what we call conventional wisdom is simply something we’ve repeated so often that we stopped questioning it.

I tell people to stand out: Contact employers before jobs are posted. Build relationships. Challenge assumptions. Stop making their résumé look like everyone else’s.

But there’s a catch: You can’t ask someone to take an unconventional path without first giving them a reason to trust you.

Resistance isn’t always stubbornness. Sometimes it’s fear, self-protection, or the weight of years of rejection and being told what they should do.

My job isn’t to convince people that I’m right.
It’s to help them become confident enough to question advice, including mine.

Because the goal isn’t to create followers. It’s to help people trust themselves enough to find their own way forward.

And that’s why: We move at the speed of trust.

Does AI make hiring better or just faster? – What are we missing?

Paul Wagenaar

AI can make hiring faster. But faster doesn’t necessarily mean better.

As employers and job seekers increasingly use AI to navigate the hiring process, we may be creating an unintended arms race, one where both sides become better at optimizing for the system rather than discovering genuine compatibility.

The real opportunity isn’t to use AI to replace human thinking. It is to use it to challenge our assumptions, expose our blind spots, and help us recognize people the traditional hiring system might overlook.

The question isn’t whether we will use AI in hiring. We already are. How do we use it better.

When your fear is greater than your desire to succeed

Paul Wagenaar

Nothing moves forward when fear outweighs what we stand to gain. We stall, we overthink, we wait; but waiting never builds a future.

Change begins the moment your desire becomes stronger than your fear, even through the fear is still there.

Shouldering too much – Needing to be needed

Paul Wagenaar

I spent years believing that being needed meant I was valuable. I carried more, fixed more, gave more, and convinced myself that was leadership.

But eventually I had to confront an uncomfortable truth: being needed is not the same as being seen. And being seen is not the same as being valued.

Sometimes the very thing that makes us successful can become the thing that keeps us from being recognized. Leadership is not about disappearing into the work. It is about understanding your impact, owning it, and creating space for others to rise with you.

The Silence Told Me Everything I Needed to Know – What happens when honesty disappears inside an organization

Paul Wagenaar

Everyone in the room knew the truth. I had heard it in conversations, one-on-one, behind closed doors. But when it was time to say it out loud, to stand behind it, there was nothing. No questions. No pushback.

Just silence. That’s when it hit me: culture isn’t defined by what people say in private. It’s defined by what they’re willing to risk saying when it actually matters.

What Employers Miss in Job Ads

Paul Wagenaar

Some people will read every word of this guide.

Some will skim it and take away only one idea.

Both are enough to make a difference.

I didn’t write this to create another checklist or another compliance document. I wrote it because I believe one simple truth:
Job advertisements are not administrative documents; they are human invitations.

Every word we choose tells someone whether they belong, whether they will be valued, and whether they can picture themselves succeeding before they ever walk through the door.

If this feels longer than most hiring advice, that’s intentional.

Hiring shapes organizations, careers, families, and futures. It deserves more than a template copied from ten years ago.

Take one idea. Take ten. Come back to the rest later.

Because sometimes changing a single sentence in a job advertisement changes the person who decides to apply, and that one decision can change the future of an entire team.

Conferences and Trade Shows – The Lie We Tell Ourselves

Paul Wagenaar

Most people don’t go to conferences to change anything.

They go to feel like they are.

They take notes. They nod. They leave inspired. Then nothing changes.

A smaller group does something else. They pick one idea and act, when it’s inconvenient, messy, and unpopular.

That’s the edge.

It’s not access to ideas. It’s the courage to use them.

The difference isn’t what you learned. It’s what you chose to do with it.