The Most Important 2020 Quality for a New Job- A Good Sense of Humor
When weighing job options in 2020, finding an organization that can laugh and celebrate is important.
When I engage people who need help with recruitment, or maybe they are looking to make a life change, I always ask them what their priorities are (where their priorities are).
Expats, and those wanting a new adventure in life, they are looking for more than a job. Taking a new position in a new country is a life changing experience. The decision comes with risks, unknown quantities, and high pressure last minute choices.
Weighing the options in the face multiple job offers can be challenging. Odd are, if you are down to two or three choices, the jobs are very similar.
My advice, break the tie based-on who made you smile the most.
2020 has been an interesting year. Trust me, the experiences people have had could not be more diverse. Schools that have done well have learned to focus on things that are important, mitigate what they can, and they have avoided being directed by fear and uncertainty.
Taking time to encourage laughter, downtime, and creative non-educational projects is part of good leadership and good change management.
The Leadership Challenge, Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner advocates for five core practices. Number five, Encourage the Heart…to keep hope and determination alive… In every winning team, the members need to share in the rewards of their efforts, so leaders celebrate accomplishments. They make people feel like heroes.
The Lippitt-Knoster Model for Managing Complex Change lists six things that must happen for change management to succeed. Number four, Incentives. Without incentives projects ultimately meet resistance. Money is rarely what people are looking for in tough times. A license for some harmless practical jokes could be the real key for employee retention. Like the time I switched a teachers laptop to an Asian language they couldn’t read right before their class began. :)
I digress.
When faced with job options you need to have some questions ready that will encourage the employer to drop the professionalism a bit. You want the employer to open up about how they made people laugh, how they structured downtime, how they dealt with parents wanting more (when there was no more to give), and what new ideas came out of the chaos.
2020 made it possible to experiment and fail without the normal push backs and hesitations. Iterating through processes will always yield something new and potentially game changing.
When this happened, were they watching or hiding? Find out.
On a personal note, here is my teams latest contribution to humor. A Darth Vader Streaming Platform. We are going to raffle it off to teachers.
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Why is this SubStack called, Pancake on a Stick?
Pancake on a Stick is the single funniest story I have ever heard in my life. In about a year from now, the event will be reenacted and recorded. I named the SubStack after the story, because every time I think of the name, I smile and laugh. This helps with my writing and tone, and makes me always remember the most important things in life.
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Most social media is dead to me, but you can find me on LinkedIn and Youtube.
LinkedIn (A bastion of boredom but mostly on mission)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/tdeprato/
My video series on Expat Recruitment is BORING but useful Listen or Watch and you can master this process.
Youtube Playlist for Expat Recruitment
Listen on Apple Podcasts