As I sat down to write this blog, I thought to myself…What’s been going on the world? I wanted to expand beyond just L&D, talent, tech, or politics. Really, think about what skills to work on from a holistic point of view. So, without further ado, here’s my countdown of top 5 durable skills to grow by the end of 2023.

 
5. Creative Thinking
According to Adobe’s website, their annual conference, Adobe Summit, drew in more than 40k people--with more than 10,000 people attending in-person and 30,000 attending online. If you’re not familiar with the Adobe Summit, the purpose is to “…explore new trends and innovations, expand your skills, and learn from the brands forging the future of experience-led growth.” This conference had one of the highest attendance rates in the United States in 2023. I believe this reflects our appreciation and dedication to valuing innovation, collaboration, and digital transformation across multiple sectors and workflows. What I believe this also reflects is a genuine connection to the power of creativity as a skill we need to continue developing. Creative thinking is all about exploring new perspectives and finding unconventional solutions to complex problems—which is exactly what Adobe continues to do with their products.
 
Resources to Develop Creative Thinking

• Book: The Creative Thinking Handbook: Your Step-by-Step Guide to Problem Solving in Business by Griffiths, Costi, & Medlicott
• Book: Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques by Michalko
• Course: ImperialX: Creative Thinking: Techniques and Tools for Success

 
 
4. Tenacity
It is estimated that nearly 3.4 million students graduated from high school in 2022-2023 and in 2020 there were 19 million individuals enrolling in a graduate or undergraduate college program. Which may result in a large pool of candidates entering the workforce in 2024. What isn’t highlighted in these data are the sheer amount of familial support and personal determination that supported these educational achievements. These achievements couldn’t have been achieved without some level of fortitude and belief in self and goals.
 
Resources to Develop Tenacity

• Podcast: https://neelraman.com/how-to-develop-tenacity-so-you-can-overcome-your-biggest-problems/
• Book: Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth

 
 
3. Resourcefulness
So far, in 2023 mid-size and large companies are spending less on training and development for their employees compared to 2022. With large companies of 10k employees or more spending about 3.5 times less than last year. So, if your employer isn’t going to pay for your training, what else can you do to still support your personal and professional growth? If you have felt this pinch, then you know that it’s important to prioritize your own growth, even if your company isn’t able to shell out thousands of dollars for you to get that new certification or attend a conference. This is where a growth mindset and the skill of resourcefulness can come in handy. What are the ways that you can find quick, clever, or innovative ways to overcome this monetary pinch? Your resourcefulness could mean the difference between maintaining and sustaining your knowledge in your field of work or falling behind peers who sought out ways to remove barriers.  
 
Resources to Develop Resourcefulness

• Course: https://acumenacademy.org/course/scott-sonenshein-on-resourcefulness/
• Article: https://your.yale.edu/ct-scene-resourcefulness-workplace-april-2021

 
 
2. Decision-Making
As we look towards 2024, we hope the layoff patterns of 2023 are behind us. In a November 2023 article by Nick Bunker for Indeed Hiring Lab, he discusses his thoughts and research on the job and hiring trends of 2024. He states that, “More evidence emerges daily that our economic maps and contingency plans may be outdated and insufficient to guide us on what comes next.” Bunker indicates that he is hopeful companies utilize a talent strategy, thus being more educated and thoughtful about hiring for business needs instead of laying off people haphazardly. So, although we may not be in the clear from a layoff’s perspective in 2024, we may see more focused hiring and talent planning than years past. Not only is this important for those being hired into an organization to feel more secure, but this is also important for leaders to make thoughtful decisions based on data and partnering with HR and talent teams. Leadership is often the one who takes the blame when layoffs occur, and rightly so. Decision-making is a critical component of leadership, formal or informal, and is a skill that should always be sharpened.
 
Resources to Develop Decision-Making

• Article: Essential decision-making skills to guide your tough choices by BetterUp
• Podcast: https://coachingforleaders.com/podcast/make-better-decisions-annie-duke/

 
 
1. Empathy
With two notable wars this year, several international conflicts, and, what feels like, constant national and interpersonal divisions daily, I encourage everyone to work on developing their skill of Empathy. Whether you believe you already use your empathic abilities daily, or you still aren’t sure what empathy even is or how it shows up, get curious about how you’re using it in your life. Empathy, for me, is about being mindful of how I relate to, interact with, understand, and perceive others and their emotions. I recently read The Art of Empathy by Karla McLaren (2013) and discovered more about how to employ empathy than I ever thought I needed to know. If this skill resonates with you, I encourage you to read her book and deepen your development of empathy. As quoted by Alfred Adler, “Empathy is seeing with the eyes of another, listening with the ears of another and feeling with the heart of another.”
 
Resources to Develop Empathy

• Book: The Art of Empathy by Karla McLaren
• Courses: https://empathyacademy.org/

 
Curious to learn more about durable skills and how to grow them? Get in touch! Reach out to me at [email protected] or visit my website at www.cowrietalentsolutions.com.
 
Follow me or connect on LinkedIn
​

The Future of Work event hosted by Colorado Business Roundtable and Colorado Succeeds boasted a wonderful morning of speakers on all topics of how we need to think about the future of work in America.

The Steve Hatfield from Deloitte and Mike Itzkowitz from HEA Group focused on bringing to light data related to current work trends, where we're headed, and the impact of certain job fields and degrees. This highlight on data and trends was underscored by the panel discussion where degree requirements in job expectations came under fire.

From all of the content that day, I took two big points away.

1. The future of work requires worker resilience and curiosity.​
2. The job requirements of tomorrow will focus on durable skills. 

Not surprisingly, durable skill development was a huge area of opportunity outlined by all of the speakers. What does that mean for companies? That means, we'll need to think about the talent development lifecycle a little differently. Starting with the job description process, recruiting, hiring, internal development, and retainment/engagement efforts. I don't think we should forget the offboarding process in skill development either. 

As we turn the corner on the tough labor market (I HOPE!), this is a great place for HR, talent development, and L&D to take a stand on how they can impact their respective industries to buy, build, borrow, or bridge the way to new methods of human capital management. 

If you have questions about the event, reach out! If you would like to set up some time to connect, reach out! If you are interested in starting a consulting or coaching engagement, reach out! We are in a squishy place, and I want to help people get to the future of work successfully. Whether that's 1 to 1, consulting for your company, or coaching a group.

​Connect!

In this final part of the mindful communication series, we examine how the historical aspect of communications can impact present and future interactions. As we move throughout life, we continue to develop a specific type of way we see the interactions of others and how our own interactions influence the situation. When we’re young, we may develop a specific communication method from the way we interact with our parents, peers, teachers, or other adults. Think of this as a specific way you look at the world, essentially the lens you bring to every conversation, every interaction. Sometimes you may be a certain person when interacting with one group of people, and feel like a completely different person when interacting with another group. This is normal, however, it becomes detrimental to communicating when your lens has a negative impact on the outcome of the conversation. 
 
I’ll give you an example from my own life. I rarely saw my parents fight when I was younger, and when I did, my father would often retreat and stop talking. In essence, he would avoid the conversation or topic completely and wait until it blew over. He still does this to this day and I’ve accepted this about him. In retrospect I realized that I unknowingly I picked up this conflict avoidance technique. Fast forward to my adulthood where conflict, both big and small, arises on an everyday basis in the workplace. I realized that I was using this ineffective technique to resolve conflict. When a co-worker and I had a major argument, I would shut down and retreat. Additionally, I was using my lens of how I learned to handle conflict and, in the process, pushing a peer away. I would get anxious whenever I knew I would talk to this person because it felt like it was always another conflict. It didn’t feel right, and it didn’t feel good to be in a constant state of anxiety whenever I had to interact with them. What could I do? It wasn’t until I began recognizing this ineffective lens that I was bringing to the communication that helped me to slowly peel back the layers of the communication that I was bringing to the conversation. I had a tough conversation with myself first that this was a communication that was not mindful, nor was it productive. Then, I had a tough conversation with the co-worker. I admitted the lens I was using, I owned my communication faults. It felt exhilarating! The co-worker was receptive and we entered into a more productive conversation after that and committed to more open discussions moving forward. 
 
By simply acknowledging my own lens that I was bringing to the conversation, instead of feeling that it was all the other person’s fault, I was able to move into more mindful communication. If you find yourself having a hard time dealing with communication, try identifying what lens you’re bringing to the conversation. What historical communication methods have you learned that may no longer be serving you? Shifting the lens to be more open and non-judgmental (both about yourself and the other person) can help you recognize the underlying issues that you can work on. It’s not about changing the other person, it’s about changing how you approach the conversation to deeply listen to how you’re showing up to that conversation. As mentioned in the previous two articles from this series, deep listening and communication styles are also great tools to help you develop the awareness of your lens. Allow yourself the time to find mindful communication and you’ll reap the benefits for years to come! Think of every conversation as a learning opportunity to engage in self-discovery and explore the other person.

Now that we understand what it means to consider what the other human we’re connecting with needs, let’s discuss how communication styles play a role in mindful communication. There are many different styles of communication and for this article, I’ll focus on the DiSC method because this is the one I know best for identifying styles. If you have done DiSC before and know what your style is, you can start to think about how your style may impact others.
 
D – Dominance: direct, strong-willed and forceful

I – Influence: sociable, talkative and lively

S – Steadiness: gentle, accommodating and soft-hearted

C – Conscientiousness: private, analytical and logical
 (Source: https://www.discprofiles.com/blog/2011/12/disc-profile-definition/)

For me, I fall primarily in the dominance category. Although most people have multiple communication styles they use in different situations, using dominance for me can pose unique challenges when interacting with other styles. I often have been told I come across as impersonal, blunt, too direct, or uncaring. Likewise, when interacting with others who are influencers, I find them to be brash, egotistical, unorganized, and sometimes flighty. However, recognizing the strengths of how we use our communication style and the opportunities to use it more effectively, helps us move towards more mindful communication. 
 
If you haven’t taken the DiSC profile yet, take a look at the website or the quick definition provided above to see where you may fall, then try the activity below. If you have taken the DiSC profile and you know where you are, consider these five tips during your next conversation. 

1. Take stock of your current mood and acknowledge your communication style.
2. Try to identify which type of communication style the other person has and think of how the way you communicate may impact them. 
3. Flex your style to be a little more like theirs – you may find that the conversation goes better and is more productive. 
4. Don’t rely on your communication style to be a scapegoat for reacting negatively or behaving poorly (this can be hard!).
5. And a key for mindful communication:Challenge yourself throughout each new conversation (including text and email) to consider how your communication style is influencing the conversation.

Communication can sometimes be tricky, especially with those individuals who have communication styles opposite from us. However, if you can try to think about how your style of communication can make the other person feel, then that is what will help you get the most out of the conversation and possibly relationship. I love this quote by Carl W. Buechner, "They may forget what you said - but they will never forget how you made them feel." Keep that in mind the next conversation you have – and yes that includes me too! 
 
Stay posted for the third and final mindful communication article next week when I discuss the lens we bring to communication. 

Over the next three weeks, this 3-part series in mindful communication will give you real-life strategies to communicate, well, more mindfully. We can’t all be Deepak Chopra, Oprah, or Bill and Melinda Gates when it comes to communicating with others. In fact, we may sometimes struggle communicating with those around us. Give yourself a little pat on the back for opening this post and wanting to learn more about how to communicate more mindfully. 
 
So, what is mindful communication? Think about that interaction you had that didn’t go quite as planned. What was your intention going into that discussion or interaction? Did you have an intention? Mindful communication simply directs our attention and efforts to the intention of our interaction. When we engage with others more mindfully, we can help remove biases and we open up to what they’re saying – without having to react! We realize we don’t need to be right. We can let the other person be smarter than us. Mindful communication is about realizing the impact our words have on the relationship. Let’s dig into the first strategy in this series.
                                                        .       .       .                                            What does this human need? A strategy to stimulate deep listening.
During a recent conversation with a coach, the concept of deep listening came up again (this is the second time I’ve written about this now!). Specifically, listening to what the human you’re talking to NEEDS. 
 
Whoa…What does that even mean? 
 
Imagine you’re talking to someone and you just aren’t seeing eye to eye. You may exchange arguments for one rationale versus the other, and you are both unwilling to budge from your position on the topic (gee, this doesn’t come up at all in our political climate, haha). This is when I was asked to take a step back. Observe the situation and discussion. What do you notice? What have you been hearing this person say? How have you been contributing to the conversation?
 
If you’re like me, stopping to observe may be a challenging task to do while in the moment of the conversation. However, I’ve been trying it out and it really helps me be more mindful. Below are the steps I’ve been taking to help make mindful communication happen. 

1. It’s a mindshift. Accept that you’re not always going to be perfect or do it right. 
2. Imagine during the conversation that you’re removing any sort of expectations or control. Like you let go of being right, you let go of your corner, you let go of emotions attached to the interactions, and so on.
3. Simply listen. Listen to the words they choose to say, listen to the inflection in their voice, listen to what they’re not saying. 
4. Ask yourself, what does this human need from me right now? Maybe it’s compassion, maybe it’s validation, maybe it’s comradery, maybe it’s acceptance, maybe they just need to be heard. Whatever it is, listen for what that human is asking for but not saying out loud. 
5. Recognize that by deeply listening, you don’t have to agree with them. Rather, you can more fully understand what they need in that moment and respond more mindfully. 

The ability to step back during a conversation and ask yourself what the person needs requires a great deal of compassion, not only for that person, but also for yourself. Give yourself some space to try this out and see how it can lead to more mindful communication for you. Asking what this human needs can help you identify areas of communication that may prevent you from moving forward in the relationship. I know it has for me. However, deep listening is a skill we all can continue to develop and do not need to be stuck in a communication rut. I’d be interested to hear how you use this in your life, so please don’t be shy to share your stories! 
 
Stay tuned next week for the second in the series when we discuss communication styles.
​- HRH

Life keeps us busy. Between work, families, school, second jobs, a side hustle… life never stops. 

​I wanted to share my story with others because, on the surface, it may appear that we are keeping it all together, but on the inside, that flame that used to keep us going slowly gets smaller and smaller. Eventually we can burnout.
 
2017 was an invigorating year. I was admitted into Johns Hopkins University to start an education doctorate program. I was offered a new position on a team that boasted expanded scopes and room for growth. I bought a new condo and took my first international trip to Costa Rica. Life was busy, but it was good. 
 
Then as 2018 started to creep up, things started to get shaky. I realized that the position I was in at work no longer held the same excitement or growth that I wanted, and I was doing less of what made me intrinsically motivated– adult education projects and content development. School was still going well and my finances were fine, so I brushed it off as just a blip that would get better. 
 
It didn’t.
 
Throughout 2018, I continued to struggle with depressionand feelings of being lost. I felt that I wasn’t able to be successful in my role and there was little room for me to use my skills. So, I began to seek out external comforts to feel more connected to my passion. I used the meditation blogthat I wrote for a friend as an initial outlet and started to develop a more structured meditationroutine. Despite these outlets, I began having outbursts of severe crying and feelings of hopelessness. I was disconnected to things that I once got pleasure from and pulled away from family and friends.
 
When summer of 2018 neared, my mental state was not any better. However, I continued to meditate in an attempt to let go of harmful thoughts. Until one day after a meditation I realized – I’m burned out.I’d been forcing myself to be a person that I no longer was, that I no longer felt any attachment to and that opened my eyes. Although my position at work didn’t change, I was able to recognize my burnout was affecting my team, my mental health, my happiness, my relationships – everything. I forgave myself for the way I had been acting and I offered myself gratitude for being open and aware enough to acknowledge it. At that point, I knew that I had to start seeking a way for me to alleviate this burnout, even if I couldn’t immediately find a new position. So, what did I do?
 
I threw myself into my passion – meditation and adult learning. I created a company, hosted meditation classes, wrote articles, and began mentoring. All while I was still completing my doctorate and working full-time. One could argue that the combination of all of the different irons I had in the fire is what caused the burnout. But, you see, the burnout from my role was the catalyst or kindling for my passion Firestarter. I knew I wasn’t going to be happy with what I was doing at work, so I attempted to make up for it by doing all of the things that made me happy outside of work. 
 
This is a nice band-aid, for now. But even today as I write this, I continue to struggle with feelings of burnout and the inability to truly work in my passion. I recently took a burnout survey by MindTools.com(you can try it too!) and, unfortunately, scored a 72 (yikes! that’s high!). However, I know that eventually the world will turn right side up, and my passion will once again be on top. I also realized that this was no one’s fault -- just a natural progression through life. No blame needed placed on myself or anyone at work.
 
My advice if you’re feeling burned out?Just be patient with yourself, get professional help if you need it, and don’t feel like you’re alone. You can and will escape an unfulfilling life.
 
So, if someone you know is struggling with burnout, be a support. Realize that they don’t need blaming or suggestions on how not to be burned out, they just need to find a path to start their own internal fire again. They just need an escape route. Sometimes it’s time, sometimes it’s a new role, and sometimes it’s just reconnecting or finding the passion again. 

Be well my friends and take a deep breath. - HRH