Y15 SESSION 9


Icebreaker: Before you begin, check out this video, Soft Skills Matter! from poptech. We all know that the future require innovative workspaces, revolutionary technologies and radically different organizational structures. But according to Irene Au, emotional intelligence, empathy and compassion are going to be just as important in this new world of work. Watch to learn how yoga and meditation can support these important new “soft skills” (poptech).

TODAY'S MISSION


Have you ever wondered how people get to the levels of success they achieve? Today, you will continue to explore paths to success by interviewing someone at your organization, someone in an industry you are interested in, or someone else important to you.

Don’t forget how important active listening is so you can learn how this person defines success and achieved it for themselves.

BUILDING A PROFESSIONAL NETWORK


GOALS


Today,you will:

  • Understand organizational management and leadership
  • Build a profile for a leader in your sector or community
  • Develop questions for an industry expert


Portofolio Workbook Steps: Each step should take 1 hour.

PORTFOLIO STEP 1

First, you need to re-acquaint yourself with the people who work at your organization and the way that the organization functions. Sometimes, organizations have “organizational charts” that show you who runs which divisions and how information flows throughout the organization.

If you can, re-visit the website of the organization to learn more about the leaders. Also ask your supervisor and/or the HR manager for an organizational chart if they have one. While you’re doing this, remember that not all organizations have these charts, but the people you work with will be able to fill you in (this is why relationships matter!).

If you were running your own organization, what would the organization chart look like? Use your Workbook or this site to design your own organizational system.

PORTFOLIO STEP 2

Next, you should build a profile of a successful leader from within your organization or the industry you’re most interested in exploring. Frist, watch this video from GCF to learn about the difference between hard and soft skills. As you watch consider, what are the soft skills that support that support leadership across industry sectors?

Next, visit this link for a sample of a professional profile to support your work. If you want to think about someone outside of your organization, you can also consider other successful individuals and research their path to success (i.e. LeBron James, Beyonce, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).

Whether you capture this in your Workbook, on paper or on a design platform like Canva, you should include some dynamic traits about this individual.

While you’re doing this, consider:

  • Where did they study?
  • What was their job trajectory?
  • What life lessons can they offer?
  • What are the big takeaways?

PORTFOLIO STEP 3

Finally, you will prepare questions for an informational interview. Informational interviewing is a networking activity that can support your career exploration process.

An informational interview is a meeting to learn about the real-life experience of someone working in a field or company that interests you.

  • Identify someone within your network or organizations whose job you would like to know more about. Contact them and request to have an informational interview. Here are some suggested questions.
  • Use your Workbook to generate questions for your interview.

While you’re doing this, consider:

  • What do you really want to know?
  • How do people define success?
  • What does it take to get to success?

Check out this link to support your work.

Hopefully, you will be able to run the interview with this person in Session 10. Even if you cannot, writing these questions will be valuable for you as a thought experiment.

Now, navigate to Session 10 by clicking the button below!

Y15 Session 10