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Independence Superseded by Interdependence

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Recently I read a piece on LinkedIn that caught my attention. It said that for our workplaces to recover fully from the COVID-19 pandemic, we must move from a work environment of independence and isolation back to one of interdependence. This is a very good way of describing the transition from Personal Isolation to a fully functioning social structure.

We’d been through a period of forced independence, which was good to a point — even essential at times. Our ability to remain effective while working autonomously and independently has been remarkable. We have rediscovered tools such as self-reliance, self-motivation, and flexibility, and made the adjustments to contribute to our work, remain organized at home, and successfully function as individuals and as family members.

On the other hand, I have separately described the personal and social collateral damage personal isolation has caused. I’m referring to the damage caused by a lack of interaction and direct contact with other people. This has affected our social skills, our learning experiences and knowledge, limited our listening and adjustments to feedback, and handicapped our acceptance of broader thinking and collaboration.

Adjusting to the new working environment is like building a plane while flying it, and without any advanced preparation.

To recover fully from the effects of COVID-19, we must re-examine the isolation we have experienced, then identify and treat the collateral damage.

Our isolation has and will continue to apply the brakes on the full development of our personal and social potential for growth. Our recognition of this is important in our ability to perform, individually and collectively, at the highest levels. Collaboration and teamwork are essential to our ability to do a quality job, and to compete in today’s job marketplace.

Independence
Independence is not a bad word, depending on the context of its use. Sometimes, it can be liberating and necessary for creativity and personal growth. Most of us have said, at one time or another, that we would pay any amount of money for free time or independence.

But, when it comes to an undetermined or open-ended isolation, it can become detrimental, limiting our range and depth of creativity and personal development. It can stagnate progress by limiting experimentation, fresh ideas, risk taking, and collaboration.

Embracing Interdependence
We must recapture the socialization and collaboration which are associated with networking and teamwork. These are the keys to success for the job hunter, expanding his or her knowledge and preparing for what comes next.

Adjustments to future changes require our ability to work closely with others, to ignite teamwork through diversity, and to create solutions. Nationally, we must work closely and quickly to re-invent our sustainability in terms of energy, food, water, housing, and infrastructure to move ahead in a competitive global economy.

Any job you accept, in any industry, requires your ability to cooperate, coordinate, and collaborate. Developing personal flexibility and fostering teamwork are highly sought-after skills and are rewarded by an employer.

Work History and Resume
Look for, document, and articulate opportunities where you took part in a project or process, large or small, or met your work objectives and goals. Note how and where you participated in understanding the big picture, and how you encouraged and embraced suggestions, opinions, and ideas, to develop a consensus and create the best solutions.

Integrate examples of these results into all aspects of developing your job-hunting marketing plan. Independence is valued and has been a strength throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. However, diversity, collaboration, and process improvement have returned as keys to workforce success.

Look for my additional blogs on independence and interdependence, as well as my book, Job Hunting – Launching to Landing for more on demonstrating these characteristics.

Ben

Break Down Your Isolation – Engage in a Broad Communication Strategy

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In launching a successful job hunt, you schedule meetings to introduce yourself to a new cast of individuals who are mostly people you have never met. Many of these contacts have been referred to you by a work associate, friend, social acquaintance, or family member, and will open new doors. These meetings form the heart of your job search, opening new opportunities, sorting possibilities, and narrowing your search to the job best suited to your experience and needs.

Our interpersonal skills need to be dusted off and polished. Many companies have dropped their exclusive virtual job interview approach and are returning to face-to-face meetings or using a combination of both types of meetings.

Post COVID 19 Pandemic
Now that we officially post- pandemic, and can proceed without isolation and masking, in most cases. (Some people may continue to wear masks due to individual vulnerability or preference.)

Despite dropping mandated mask wearing and isolation, I occasionally wear a mask. For example, when I visit a doctor’s office (some still require a mask), when I visit my pharmacy since most people there are unwell, and when I’m in unfamiliar and crowded situations.

During your job search you may be asked to adjust to changing conditions when conducting networking meetings, referral meetings, or during job interviews, whether virtually, by phone, face-to-face, or all three.

Discontinue Isolation
The time has come to shake off isolation and its negative effects. We have missed opportunities to mix, disagree, compliment, excite, tease, laugh, challenge, inform, learn, and surprise each other.

Use what you have learned to protect yourself and your loved ones during the pandemic but make a personal effort to break your isolation. Go about your job search with full determination and confidence. Break the log jam of isolation and take in the benefits of socializing and meeting new people.

As you conduct your job hunt and add new contacts to your personal and professional sphere, you have an opportunity to hone your interpersonal skills, which ensures you are at the top of your game when you meet for a job interview or networking meeting.

Expanding and exercising your networking skills provides the practice you need, and more importantly, provides specific referral channels for meeting individuals who will help you find your next job.

Our interpersonal skills may have grown rusty because of personal isolation, and recommitting to practicing them by networking will yield important new contacts and referrals, and ensure we participate in every job interview with full confidence.

See additional blogs for further discussion of networking and creating new contacts and referrals.

Ben

What We Have Lost as a Result of Personal Isolation

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Personal Isolation (PI), while serving as a leading tool in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, has left behind collateral damage to our personal, social, and political networks. PI has limited our personal growth, influence, and credibility.

What we lose during periods of personal isolation:

  • Negotiation, collaboration and consensus-building skills and results – creating consensus – finding solutions that are acceptable to everyone.
  • The benefit of diversity as a catalyst for developing solutions to problems through consensus and teamwork.
  • Feedback, including criticism, observations, agreement, and suggestions about developing ideas, opinions, and ideologies (solicited or unsolicited).
  • Compassion, understanding, and acceptance of all group or team members.
  • Tolerance for new and different ideas, especially those we perceive as contrary to our own, or which are new and unfamiliar.
  • Creativity. Isolation stifles the diverse thinking needed to expand and improve ideas.
  • Objectivity. Isolation promotes self-centered, myopic, and fragile thinking.
  • The water cooler / coffee breaks and other small, informal gatherings where ideas and opinions can take root and ferment.
  • Lunch and dinner conversations, where experiences are shared, and ideas begin to take shape.
  • Development of existing, new, and unexpected casual and professional relationships.

The loss of these interactions presents challenges that affect both the workplace and our personal lives, presenting lingering obstacles to our future development. Personal isolation has limited many of our professional networking interactions, including how we are viewed and evaluated when we conduct our job search.

As you propel your way out of the post pandemic era and into your next career move, I recommend you redefine your direction and emphasize what I call your Three Key Strengths – A Big Picture View, Creating Effective Working Relationships, and Developing Durable Work Ethics. These are fundamental elements which reach beyond job requirements or your job matching skillset, and appeal to all hiring managers.

I recommend you thoroughly integrate these three values and characteristics into your marketing plan. It’s time to regain the momentum we used to ride out the isolation imposed on us during the COVID-19 pandemic and direct our efforts to an uninhibited job hunt.

See other blogs for job hunting skills development and a refinement of the three key strengths skills, and look for my upcoming book, Job Hunting – Launching to Landing.

Ben

Social Isolation and Inhibition

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From its inception, one of the greatest strengths and successes behind the experiment known as the United States of America is the mixing and assimilation of diverse cultures, including a wide range of social and political ideologies. A major building block of our country is the belief that we have a foundation that supports our diversity without losing individual liberty and identity. We live and work under the assumption that we are all created equal and are protected by the principle of equality under the law.

Ideally, we have been able to express and maintain our individuality while supporting one another as a community, providing a wide range of cooperation and support for the general good across our differences. We have learned we are stronger when we work together for the benefit of the whole, and we thrive and function smoothly despite our many differences.

COVID-19 Limited Our Social Contacts
Personal Isolation in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic has interrupted and limited our individual and collective interactions. We are reminded that our individual, professional, and social interactions are invaluable in promoting the sharing and the assimilation of our differences through collaboration, argument, and compromise leading to their resolution.

This assimilation process has formed the social fabric that makes us a unique and successful model of democratic principles. We are a collection of diverse people from all over the world who continue to find ways to live and work together while supporting a wide range of individual dreams and destinies without exclusion, at least in principle. We have learned and thrived from our differences. This has been reinforced by the legal precedent of equality under the law, which has tempered and strengthened our unity.

Recently, Personal Isolation has presented a major obstacle in our ability to continually merge and temper our diversity. Isolation can promote self-interest and self- righteousness which fosters inflexibility, solidifying our differences rather than promoting understanding, tolerance, compromise, and unity.

Lack of Context
During COVID-19 induced personal isolation, we missed out on the opportunity to hear competing thoughts, ideas, and feedback. We missed opportunities to add our thoughts to an argument which might improve an idea, or to present a key reason the idea might fail.

Limited Analytical Process
Besides limiting the amount and quality of incoming information during personal isolation, we lost our ability to discuss, analyze, and vet that incoming information. We lost feedback to our ideas, and with it, we also lost the opportunities to develop communication and collaboration skills that promote interaction and compromise.

Overcoming the Effects of Isolation During Your Job Hunt
When combined, these interactive losses are incalculable. Being shut off from direct contact with others limits our range for absorbing new information and continued growth. That’s why I emphasize networking and creating a new chain of contacts and referrals in my book, Job Hunting – Launching to Landing. Opening new channels of communication is vital to the successful implementation of a job-hunting marketing plan and to landing the job you want.

The process for a thorough job search includes re-visiting former contacts, developing new ones, and building a referral contact list. Creating this list provides the practice you need to strengthen your confidence and credibility while sharpening the social skills which may have lost a step or two during the isolation associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Refer to other blogs for all the tools you need to conduct an effective Job Hunting campaign.

Ben

Collateral Damage From the COVID-19 Pandemic

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Personal Isolation was an invaluable tool in the fight against COVID-19. But that’s not the whole story.

Pharmaceutical companies developed several vaccines which have been vital in preventing the spread of the disease and have saved countless lives. Other tools such as mask wearing, washing hands and work surfaces, and the development of new medications to treat COVID-19 infections have been effective, to varying degrees.

It is, however, personal isolation that has been, and remains, the most effective tool we have against the spread of disease.

In addition to isolating ourselves when we became infected, we reduced personal, social, and professional contact with each other as a preventive measure. We avoided crowds, public transportation, schoolmates, playmates, work associates, friends, neighbors, and even family members.

To support and preserve our social, professional, and personal contacts, we adopted the use of various tools to communicate, visually and digitally, avoiding in-person contact. While effective, these adaptations are not a substitute for direct contact, and in many ways, have become a subtle form of avoidance and isolation.

We cannot sustain and grow a vital economy, manage a family, or conduct our personal lives effectively in a long-term state of isolation.

The nuances of losing direct contact with others were not obvious at the onset of the pandemic. While necessary at the time, we are now aware of the missing elements and the advantages of sharing face-to-face time and space with other people.

Isolation sealed off seemingly trivial things: personal greetings, the sharing of observations, opinions, rumors, firsthand experiences, and personal and social stories. We lost our reactions to and from other people regarding our thoughts and opinions. The variety and quality of input we had on a typical day, both with people we know and complete strangers, evaporated.

We also lost the most valuable tool in managing a diverse workforce: The constructive interactive effects; the synergy created when groups of people collaborate in problem identification, analysis, and the development of innovative solutions.

Isolation inhibits our personal growth and also promotes polarization of social and political ideas. Without steady interaction with people, we lose valuable exposure, reactions, and diversity of ideas.

Personal Isolation leaves us stranded in a void of our own making, and limits our ability to adjust, interact, and develop our social and individual people skills. We inadvertently sustain a narrow, unchallenged, and even stagnant point of view.

How does isolation affect our job-hunting efforts?
Job hunting is a new endeavor for those seeking a job change because the elements involved differ from the current familiar job skills we practice, aspire to improve upon, and master. When we are looking for a job, we want to be as knowledgeable and proficient as possible. Job hunting requires a whole new skillset, regardless of what your occupation or status has been until now. We do not regularly practice job hunting skills sufficiently enough to sharpen our readiness. It requires focus, learning, planning, and practice.

The pandemic has left us out of practice, and it’s time to sharpen our communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills. This includes networking, refreshing and growing our contact list, and pursuing new referrals. We need to have our written and verbal resumes ready for sharing.

We must be prepared to shed our isolation cobwebs and regain proficiency in our social and communication skills to aggressively engage in a job hunt.

Look for additional information in my Source Blogs, and my upcoming book, Job Hunting – Launching to Landing.

Ben

Collateral Damage Caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic’s Most Effective Tool, Personal Isolation

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Personal Isolation was an invaluable tool in the fight against COVID 19.

Pharmaceutical companies developed several vaccines which have been key in preventing the spread of the disease and saved countless lives. Other tools such as mask wearing, sterilization of hands and surfaces, and the development of new medications to treat the COVID infection have been effective, to varying degrees.

It is, however, personal isolation that has been, and remains, the most effective tool we have against the spread of disease.

In addition to isolating ourselves if we became infected, we reduced personal, social, and professional contact with each other as a preventive measure. We avoided crowds, public transportation, schoolmates, work associates, friends, neighbors, and even family members.

To support our social, professional, and personal contact, we adopted various tools to communicate, virtually and digitally, without direct contact. While effective, these adaptations are not a substitute for direct contact, and in some cases, have become another subtle form of avoidance and isolation.

Obviously, we cannot sustain a vital economy or even manage a family or our personal lives in a long-term state of isolation.

The nuances and losses of having direct contact with others were not obvious at the onset of the pandemic. While necessary at the time, we are now aware of the missing elements and the advantages of sharing face-to-face time and space with other people.

Isolation sealed off trivial things: personal greetings, the sharing of observations, opinions, rumors, firsthand experiences, and stories. We lost our reactions to and from other people regarding our thoughts and opinions. The variety of input we had on a typical day, both with people we know and complete strangers, became stifled.

We also lost the most valuable tool in managing a diverse workforce: The constructive interaction created when people collaborate in problem identification and take part in developing creative and innovative solutions.

Isolation also inhibits our personal growth and promotes polarization of social and political ideas. We have lost valuable exposure, reactions, interactions, and input into the way we think and manage our lives.

Personal Isolation leaves us stranded in a void of our own making and limits our ability to adjust, interact, and develop our social and people skills. We inadvertently develop a narrow, unchallenged, and even stagnant point of view.

How does isolation affect our job-hunting efforts?
Job hunting is a new endeavor for those seeking change because the elements involved differ from the familiar job skills we practice, aspire to improve upon, and master. When job hunting is needed, we want to be as knowledgeable and proficient as possible. Job hunting requires a whole new skillset, regardless of what your occupation or status has been up until now. We do not regularly practice job hunting sufficiently enough to sharpen our readiness. It requires focus, learning, planning, and practice.

The pandemic has left us out of practice, and it’s time to sharpen our communication and presentation skills, including networking, visiting with and updating contacts, and pursuing new referrals. We need to have our written and verbal resumes ready for sharing.

We must be prepared to shed our isolation cobwebs to be on top of our social and communication skills.

Ben

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