Learning

Job Skill Supply and Demand

January 17, 2019 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

LinkedIn has created a major market for buying and selling job skills. They have 30 thousand companies using LinkedIn to recruit with 3 million jobs posted. With clear insight into the supply and demand curves for job skills, LinkedIn provides reports of where the biggest gaps are between supply and demand by metropolitan area.

When I was running a large technology organization, I asked people to create the resume they wanted to have a year or two from now, and to look at what they needed to do to make that resume come true. It provided focus for their development, and openness to the fact my team was in high demand by recruiters, and we did not have to pretend it was not true. My message was, “If you are valuable to others, you are valuable to us. I just ask that you talk to me before taking an offer someplace else.” When there is clarity about how to provide value, everyone wins.

Minneapolis / St. Paul Example

LinkedIn reports on the top gaps in the marketplace. The top ten skills where postings show bigger supply than demand are listed where #1 is the biggest skill surplus:

Project Management
Management Accounting
Employee Learning & Development
Manufacturing Operations
Product Development
Negotiation
Business Management
Procurement
Inside Sales
Product Marketing

The skills shortages are where demand exceeds the supply. They are listed where #1 is the biggest shortage:

Oral Communication
People Management
Time Management
Public Policy
Social Media
Development Tools
Web Development
Problem Solving
Writing
Graphic Design

Improved communication and management skills are well represented on the list of needed skills. Being in the business of helping improve these in demand skills, it looks encouraging. It is striking to me that Oral Skills, People Management, and Time Management are high on the list. It may suggest that the technology world has overwhelmed oral communications. Many people, and not just the younger generation, spend life looking at their mobile phones rather than people.

Watch people in elevators looking at their phones rather than interacting. Parents spend precious time at the dinner table checking text messages or social media accounts. Maybe we all need to develop the most in-demand skills identified by LinkedIn.

Pay Attention

Assuming these are important skills today whether you are looking for a job or to improve performance in the job you have … there is good news. All three of these involve paying attention and keeping perspective.

There is a particular and unique opportunity for effective oral communication both in speaking and listening. It engages the emotions in a productive way that text messages or email cannot duplicate. It is particularly true in people management. Time management is an age-old challenge made even worse by the continual barrage of messages trying to capture your attention.

It may require choosing to be calmer and more thoughtful at certain times.

How Old Are You?

March 10, 2017 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

When my father was 60, he referred to himself as being “middle-aged”. His friend asked him, “How many people do you know who are 120?”

A Life Well Lived

Minnesota Orchestra Conductor Laureate Stanislaw Skrowaczewski was born in Poland 93 years ago. He started playing piano at age 4. He loved playing music until he was injured by a bomb during World War II. He became a conductor in Warsaw and Cleveland before he took over the Minneapolis Symphony in 1960. A few months ago we heard him conduct the Minnesota Orchestra with such gusto that it was hard to believe he was 93 years-old. His love for the music was clear. One non-stop performance was 80 minutes long without using the written score. Last year he conducted in over a dozen countries. So how old was Skrowaczewski? Sadly, he died last month. He fully lived all of his 93 years.

Being Engaged in Life

There are numerous studies that all point to being engaged in something you find worthwhile (for pay or not) significantly improves our happiness and our health. I feel blessed to feel that way about what I do. Most of my “work” gives me energy, even though I am well past what many think is retirement age. See my blog Build your Return on Life (ROL) from 2014 about Mitch Anthony’s book “The New Retirementality” that challenges the concept of a retirement age as a leftover concept from the Industrial Revolution.

How Old Should I Feel?

I do not advocate that people should not retire because I have not done so. There are many people who have sacrificed enormously to build their career and feed their families. They have traveled extensively, or in other ways, sacrificed family time to do work that is not all that satisfying any more. Finding a way to remove from your life what is draining and add things that are nourishing is a wonderful endeavor. I know many who have focused on their grandchildren to recapture what they lost with their own children’s growing years. That is a fabulous opportunity to recover. Others have found the artist inside them during their retirement, like President George W. Bush.

My misconception of how a grandfather should feel is very apparent to me. Looking at the photo of the man looking in the mirror pretty well captures the gap. I feel like the younger man, and the mirror reflects an older man. I expected to feel like the older man in my 70’s, but I don’t… most of the time.

I know many who think their 60’s and 70’s are the best years of their lives. Maybe the 80’s too …. I just have not asked enough people in their 80’s. That was not my expectation when I was in my 30’s. That was not how I saw my grandfather in his 70’s.

Should We Allow More People to Work Longer?

Many would say, “Not on your life!” and others would find community, contribution and maybe purpose, if they were able to continue to work. Warren Buffet continues to make good investments in his 80’s. The Supreme Court is filled with senior citizens. Many cultures honor the wisdom of age more than the US culture.

There are definitely limitations brought on by aging. There are also strengths that build with continued age. I was blessed with a grandmother who was young at heart and willing to share honest wisdom such as, “Those who talk about the ‘good old days’ have bad memories. It was not all good.”

The companies who can overcome unfounded age discrimination and also make adjustments, where appropriate, to work rules will have a competitive advantage in many industries.

Getting the First 90 Days Right

March 28, 2015 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

The first 90 days in a new role or a new company are important to get right. First impressions are difficult to change after 90 days.

There are several common-sense things you need to do when moving into a new situation. Unfortunately, we often see people make significant mistakes in one or more of the areas below. Often the adrenalin from excitement or fear causes people to come on too strong; or conversely, be too laid back. The 90 days go by quickly. If you are too focused on task … the opportunity is lost forever. Use the grace period you normally receive in the first 90 days to lay the groundwork for a successful first year. Key points:

Focus on Listening and Learning
It is easy to see what you would do differently based on your experience. Wait. Make sure you demonstrate interest in what others have done in the past. Ask questions. Show respect. Clearly let them know you want to help build on past successes. If you have been told you were brought in as a “change agent” … don’t be too sure or move too fast. The phrase is often more of a recruiting message than an organizational message.

Use meetings well
Many people will likely create their lasting impression by the way they participate in meetings. Match your vocal and visual approach to those around you who seem to be most effective in meetings. People often come on too strong vocally or visually when they are trying to make their mark in the first 90 days. No one wants a nervous airline pilot. Don’t you be the one making them nervous! If you are making them nervous, you won’t last in the corporate relationship.

Look for “Low Hanging Fruit”
Most situations provide relatively small changes that can bring immediate payback, have low controversy, are easy to implement and within your control. Make those changes and share the credit. Help people think of you as working with them and getting results.

Build your network quickly
Being new is a natural reason to have a meeting, lunch, or coffee with key people in your area as well is in other areas. After 90 days it can be more difficult to orchestrate.

Be ready with a plan by 100 days
After you have made the 90 days work for your personal brand, it’s time for a clear and simple plan. Engage your boss and other stakeholders as well as your team. Be ready to deliver results that are perceptible to others.

Delivering results matter
Set clear expectations. Update others regularly. Avoid unpleasant surprises. Manage your perception as well as your product. Get your results through others.

Bottom line: When joining a new department or company, don’t make it just about results. Relationships matter. Let them get to know you. Share a little more about yourself, your family and your interests than you might have in the past so they can understand more of what you bring to the party. With strong and trusting relationships throughout the company, your early results will actually have a greater impact.

Forgetting helps you learn

July 28, 2014 By Tom Mungavan Leave a Comment

After a great workshop or other learning experience, we often “see the light” and are energized to use the new insights. So why is it often only a week or a couple of months we have trouble remembering what we learned? I know that I can learn to use a special program for a project and do fairly well even if it is new and slow. When I go back six months later I have to learn things over again. If I do this iteration multiple times … eventually most of it “sticks” to my brain.

It turns out we are better off if we learn, forget, and re-learn. Our natural way to learn is to do something, later make a mistake because we forgot part of what we learned and we need to learn it again. Recent research has shown that is the best way to learn.

Annie Murphy Paul, author of “The Science of How We Get Smarter” notes that boot camps give the false sense of mastery and is actually easier than real learning. Spending 40 hours over three months is a better way to learn than a concentrated 40 hour week on a topic, according to Nate Kornell, professor of psychology at Williams College; as long as a similar intense effort is expended in both cases. An application discussion was in the New York Times personal business section June 28th, 2014.

At Change Masters® we have found a clear result from a concentrated learning with followed-up learning is the most effective. We use an intense learning experience followed by what we call “drip learning™” following the intense learning process. Those that use the additional learning and use the skills over a one year period show meaningful and long-lasting changes.

Another way to solidify learning experiences is to immediately apply the new learning on the job (OJT) over time until it is habit. This is just as true of leadership skills as it is for physical skills. In sports, we would not expect to go to a class and know how to shoot par at golf or kick a ball into the net.