Tag: Community involvement

Yes … you will use algebra after graduation – 10 things you should know before graduating

Paul Wagenaar

Twice each year I present a workshop on “How to Keep a Job” for high school cooperative education students. The one piece of advice that was shared with me before my first one was “Don’t be boring.” I keep getting asked back so I must have succeeded.

Each time I speak to students I feel invigorated by their attention and their questions. Last week I spoke to approximately 150 students and their questions inspired today’s post. I wrote this with them in mind, my own three children, and what I had wished I had learned when I was their age.

Please read this, share this, and add your own comments.

It is not too optimistic or too negative, I have tried to balance both so each reader can take some tools away they can use.

No one is where they were supposed to be.

Paul Wagenaar

Are we just the sum of our good and bad decisions? Labels and simple equations do not begin to adequately describe us and how we became who we are. In a world that increasingly uses simple rhetoric to explain how to solve our problems; we need to understand the complex interplay of variables that shape all of us.
If we can understand and appreciate, then we can begin to tailor individual courses of action.

One of the hardest things we do …

Paul Wagenaar

Finding a job or reinventing yourself after leaving a job can be one of the most difficult situations we face in life. Help is available in virtually every region. There is also a focus, a series of steps, something similar to Abraham Maslow’s famous Hierarchy of Needs, that can help achieve your goals.

This post is a little longer than normal, but it is worth the extra few minutes. Please use it, share it, and please add your suggestions to help people who are struggling.

With Freedom Comes Responsibility

Paul Wagenaar

Politics and elections is more than 10 second sound bites and popular slogans. We seem to have grown apathetic towards our democracies and take our rights as something we will always have.

Most of the world does not live the way we do … if we are not careful our rights and democracy could disappear while we are watching.

Read this as a beginning, ask questions, become interested, become engaged, and vote whenever you have the opportunity.

More than doing just one thing …

Paul Wagenaar

I began as a good manager but a poor leader. I benefited from good mentors and people who believed in my potential and through hard work, and many missteps, I have become a better manager and a good leader. In a small way, I hope this post repays their faith and helps you.

Success does not result from a single action, success is the cumulative result of hundreds of small intricate actions and decisions; but most importantly success comes from treating your people well.

It’s about what they want …

Paul Wagenaar

I am passionate about people, learning about them, learning from them, helping them, and helping me. For organizations that want to engage with their communities, with perspective clients and future employees a great vehicle is attending a trade show, job fair, or other types of exhibitions. Improve your success by considering the following “do’s and don’ts,” as always please feel free to add your suggestions.

Paul Wagenaar

We all want to make a difference, from the most senior to the most junior, the need has never been greater. Use this as a starting point for your own contribution, add/subtract as you wish, but please start now.

Just how easily it can happen.

Paul Wagenaar

Sometimes it is too easy to blame the victims rather than to work on solutions to the cause. Not a week goes by where a municipality is not trying to dismantle an encampment of people experiencing homelessness. Our media is full of outraged politicians and community members demanding action be taken, often punitive action.

One of the missing elements in these diatribes is “How” people come to experience homelessness. Few of those demanding punitive action realize just how precarious they and we are.

Could it happen to you, to me, to your friends, and even your grandparents, it could and it could happen faster than you can think.

Building Connectivity and Engagement

Paul Wagenaar

Recently I attended a local job fair. Individually all of the participants, job seekers/employers/and organizers, did a good job … but some things were missing.

I came away from the job fair the same way I always do, frustrated and disappointed, as I suspect did many other people. I decided to offer some suggestions or “Tools Everyone Could Use” whether a job-seeker, employer, or organizer … see what you think.

Don’t cry, learn from spilled milk …

Paul Wagenaar

People are the “everything” for any organization. What if I told you, your organization could be much more successful without seeing any more clients or customers than you are right now? Every organization has “spillage,” clients or customers who leave your organization unsatisfied.

Starting today, especially after reading this short introduction, you and your people, regardless of your place in our communities, can do better. Providing an “Exceptional Customer Service Experience” is the starting point. This is true whether your organization is dedicated to sales or an established charitable organization. Take 5 minutes and see what you think.