Written by Shweta Shrivastav
Keynote
Tom Gammon has been involved with Career Connectors for about 5 years, first as an attendee, and also as a volunteer. Seven Simple Things™ emerged from Tom’s professional and personal experiences, and a penchant for continuous learning. He spent 30+ years in the corporate world creating and growing business units within large organizations to 9-digit revenue levels and high profit performance. He has also trained, coached and mentored hundreds of small business owners and thousands of individual professionals. He is an Academic Associate with ASU, where he mentors students, faculty, and community-based start-ups, is a guest lecturer on the subjects of personal and team development and performance, leadership, and culture, and chairs the Venture Mentor Advisory Council for ASU’s Venture Devil’s program.
The Seven Simple Things™ is a collection of principals, practices, tools and resources to help you move forward in any situation and create a happier, less stressful and more productive life.
These principles can be applied in various fields like Entrepreneurial ventures; Management, Organizational Teaming and Leadership; Consulting, Coaching, Speaking, Mentoring; Job Search/Career Transition; Professional Sales and Sales Management; Educational Pursuits/Personal Development; Direct/Network Marketing; and Athletic team performance to name a few.
Once there were three brick-layers. Each one was asked what they were doing. The first one grimly replied, “I am laying bricks”. The second one said, “I am building a big wall”. The third one said with pride, “I am building the greatest chapel ever built.” So, our attitude towards whatever we are doing determines the level of success. If we have the bigger picture in mind and not just the task at hand, we are better able to eliminate obstacles.
From the HR perspective, the hiring criteria they have in mind is if we CAN do you our job, if we WILL do our job and if are a good culture FIT.
So, now the question is during this time of job transition how do we stay motivated, focused and end up getting a great job?
The answer is by emphasizing on the Seven Simple Things™
- Positive Thought
- Positive Action
- Ponder the possibilities
- Preparation
- Practice
- Persistence
- Patience
The implementation process – How do we achieve these Seven Simple Things™?
- Creating an ability based mindset
- The performance triangle
- Craft and tell your story
Creating an ability based mindset
Some of the challenges to creating an ability based mindset are Fear, difficult task, questioning your abilities, discomfort, not being clear about your “why”, and mired down or being “stuck”.
- So, how do we get over these challenges? Emphasize serving others be it Community, Customers, Professional Stakeholders, or Personal Network.
- Daily reflection about your values and your “why”, expressing gratitude either as a prayer or as gratitude journaling, setting intentions/goals, learning, and getting a little uncomfortable each day by doing something you have not done before.
- Taking time to contemplate and meditate. For example, learn about simple “pranic” breathing techniques.
The performance triangle
The performance triangle is Acceptance-Choice-Action.
Acceptance: The first step to great performance is acceptance. Taking stock of where we are and creating a game plan from there to reach our goals. Not approaching the job search from a victim mentality but from an abundance mentality.
Choice: Once we accept and take stock of our current situation, the inevitable question of choice comes up. We can either chose to take action and feel the pain of effort or not take action and feel the pain of regret. The choice is ours to make.
Action: One step at a time along the way to something bigger/better. We don’t need to “boil the ocean” but make a difference in our own unique way. We should appreciate, enjoy and even celebrate the action. Repeat the cycle by accepting the new moment created by your action.
Craft and Tell you Story (Leverage Your Unique-ness)
Here are the the components to crafting a compelling story about what you offer.
- Situation/Background – Events, Findings, Experience(s)
- Decision, Action, Results – Choices, Actions, Results
- What I like most – About current status/results
- Reactions – People [Clients] find that
- Engagement Question – OPEN ENDED
Invitation: Receive free Seven Simple Things™ introductory e-book for Entrepreneurs or Job Seekers when you join the mailing list on Tom’s website TomGammon.net.
Suggested Readings:
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor
The Charisma Myth by Olivia Fox Cabane
The Success Principles by Jack Canfield
The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin
A New Earth ad The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success by Deepak Chopra
The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach us the Good Life by Michael Puett & Christine Gross-Loh
Letting Go by David R Hawkins
Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
How Good Do We Have To Be by Harold S Kushner
You are a BADASS by Jen Sincero
Hiring Companies
Bank of the West
Douglas Deyo, Recruiter
A subsidiary of BNP Paribas, Bank of the West has recently (October 2017) set up shop in Phoenix. They have plans to hire more than a 1000 people in the coming year. They have a laid back work environment due to their European roots and have a robust pay and benefit policy. Some of the roles they are hiring for are Customer Service, Administrators, Accounting professionals, IT professionals, Banking and Loan Operations professionals. You can find all their job postings at here.
LoanCare – A Servicelink Company
Robert Soukkala, VP Site Manager
LoanCare is majority owned by Fidelity National Financial, Inc. They have a casual dress code and laid back work environment. They are currently hiring in their Customer Experience, Collections, and Loss Mitigation departments. All of their jobs are listed at LoanCare.net.
Chase
Lekheythan Malone, Sr Recruiting Professional
Chase serves nearly half of America’s households with a broad range of financial services. The scale of operations provides job seekers with amazing job opportunities. There are ample opportunities to grow within the company. Their benefits are one of the best in the market. Additionally, they have various diversity groups including Veterans, LGBTQ and others.
Some of their open roles are:
Phoenix – Consumer Direct Mortgage Banker, Underwriter – Auto Finance, Customer Service & Collections Specialist I & III – Auto, and Lead Teller Ops Specialist Trainee (English/Bilingual)
Tempe – US Help Desk Specialist II, Customer Service & Fraud, Customer Service & Fraud (bilingual), Mortgage Services Specialist I, and Retail Customer Service
Find all of their job listings here.
Vanguard
Ralph Kimbrough, Sr Recruiter
Vanguard is one of the largest investment management companies. They put great emphasis on work-life integration. 37.5 hours of work is considered full-time work. They have some great benefits like on site gym, on site health clinic, tuition reimbursement, retirement savings, and learning opportunities.
They are hiring for various jobs from Entry level to Management level. Some of the roles are Client Relationship Specialist, Processing Associate, Financial Adviser, Compliance Manager, and Team leaders. For their current open positions, please visit their website.