5 Questions to Ask Yourself If You Want to be a "Career Untouchable"

I've always said there's no such thing as job security. Whether we realize it or not, most of us are essentially independent contractors, working at the whim of our customers, assured of employment only as long as we are able to add value in some way. This weekend I started thinking about ways to become a "career untouchable." That is, how do we position ourselves so that we are always... Read more →


Do You Have a "Growth Mindset"? Are You Fostering Growth in Others?

From the NYT: WHY do some people reach their creative potential in business while other equally talented peers don’t? After three decades of painstaking research, the Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck believes that the answer to the puzzle lies in how people think about intelligence and talent. Those who believe they were born with all the smarts and gifts they’re ever going to have approach life with what she calls a... Read more →


Mistakes as Professional Development

This morning I realized that I haven't had any big flameouts in my career. No major mistakes, no monumental screw-ups. This isn't because I'm so perfect. It's because I haven't taken any huge risks. I go out on a limb a little ways, sure, but I'm always within my safety zone, working WITH a net. I thought about this while reading Drucker's Take on Making Mistakes: "Nobody learns except by... Read more →


If You Do Not Work On Important Problems, You Will Not Do Important Work

Why do you go to work in the morning? More importantly, what makes you WANT to go to work in the morning? Yes, it might be that pesky thing called a paycheck, but I'm guessing that those of us who bound out of bed, ready to hit the day, do so because we believe that the work we're doing has meaning, that we're contributing to something important. A lot of... Read more →


Using Del.icio.us to Create an Easy, Always Updated Online Portfolio

A few days ago, I was checking out Nine Notable Uses for Social Bookmarking (read the article--there's stuff there you probably haven't considered before) and I was struck by number 6--build an online portfolio. I personally believe that having an online portfolio is a critical work literacy skill and an important part of an overall online identity management strategy. So back in April I ran a webinar on using free... Read more →


Professional Development Practice: The One Sentence Journal

Regular readers know that I'm a big fan of reflective practice--one of the greatest values of blogging for me has been that it's created a forum for me to regularly think about what I do and how I do it. But most people aren't ready to make that kind of time commitment so here's something that I think might be a perfect way to encourage reflection in the shortest time... Read more →


Announcing the Launch of the Work Literacy Network

Building on my ongoing interest in understanding what it means to be "literate" in the 21st century, as well as my exploration of professional development and personal learning environments using social media tools, I'm pleased to announce a new project I'm working on with Tony Karrer--Work Literacy. Work Literacy is a network of individuals, companies and organizations who are interested in learning, defining, mentoring, teaching and consulting on the frameworks,... Read more →


Check Out this Non-Traditional Resume!

| View | Upload your own A few months ago I wrote about a blog post from Seth Godin on the death of the resume. This morning I had an email from Jeff Widman one of the people who responded to Seth's call for interns, pointing me to this very non-traditional resume he submitted to apply for the job. Apparently with a few tweaks, he also sent his "resume" to... Read more →


How I Got Started with Social Media

Karyn Romeis is wondering how people got started with social media and what it's meant to their professional practice. This is part of her dissertation, which she is actually writing on a wiki--a strategy I think is pretty interesting. So here's my story. . . I've been online since 1995, participating initially in email listservs and forums. I also dabbled in teaching classes with what we, at the time, called... Read more →


Shouldn't We All Be Learning Digital Literacy Skills?

A few weeks back, I was doing some thinking about 21st century workplace literacy and wondering why edubloggers and workplace learning bloggers weren't having more conversations about what constitutes "literacy" in a radically changed workplace. I would argue that by anyone's definition, digital literacy should be part of what we mean when we talk about the skills that all workers need to be successful. I'd go so far as to... Read more →