Coffee with Colby

Live from the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communications, Colby talks about the importance of asking questions early on in your role ... how asking the right questions can actually make you sound smart and why questions are critical to setting you up for long term success.

Accusations leveled against Senator Amy Klobuchar recently have brought the issue of abusive bosses to the front of our conversation (see link below for detail). While not commenting on the Senator Klobuchar situation specifically, Colby shares his own examples of working with abusive bosses and the five steps every employee needs to take to address this kind of situation, whether their boss is throwing office supplies, cursing at staff or belittling team members in a staff meeting.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/22/us/politics/amy-klobuchar-staff.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

Preparing for a job interview can be an agonizing process as you likely will receive several opinions on how to present yourself ... from your attire to your resume to your cover letter. In today's episode, Colby shares the one strategy that has helped him weed through the multitude of opinions and best prepare himself for numerous interviews and how you can apply it to your own job search no matter your level in the industry.

Launching into a career can feel intimidating and scary. Whether you are just graduating from school or moving from one field into a new industry, you may feel like you have to pick the RIGHT gig with the RIGHT organization which just adds an entire layer of nerves and stress to an already challenging situation.In today's episode, Colby shares why it is important to be open at every phase of your career path and why it is not important to land the RIGHT job right out of the gate.

Everyone knows they NEED to network, but not everyone knows HOW to network in a way that's going to move the needle on a job search or a career change. How do you build meaningful relationships with the people who can actually have a say in hiring decisions? Colby shares why he hates traditional "networking" and what steps any job seeker can take today to start building a robust network of professional colleagues.

Annual reviews can be a nerve wracking experience, especially if you are relatively new in your career or hoping for a raise/promotion. A few steps ahead of time can set you up for success and put you on the path to career growth.

Want to inspire a team to go the extra mile? Want to be the colleague your teammates WANT to work with? Want to make fiends and build influence within your organization, with vendors and with partners? Start with two simple words: Thank You.In Today's episode, Colby shares the value of saying Thank you ... more than just the quick thanks we all tack onto the end of emails ... and some simple strategies to quickly express your gratitude with colleagues in a way that will uplift their day and help put you in a positive light.

Asking for a raise can be one of the trickiest conversations you'll have in your career. In today's episode, Colby shares the five steps you should follow when requesting a compensation increase, including how to position yourself in the strongest possible way with your boss and how too figure out what you're REALLY worth.

Interviewing for a new job can be a stressful period, but making a boneheaded mistake can make the whole experience feel like a disaster. After walking through the job interview process dozens of times, Colby has gained some expert insight into what key steps can set you up for success, whether it's your screening interview with HR or the final sit down with the CEO. Listen in for these 7 tips to make prepping for your next job interview a breeze.

Tis the season for OPEN ENROLLMENT. This is the time of year when employees have the opportunity to make fresh healthcare elections and making the wrong choices can cost you big in the longterm.In today's episode, Colby shares key tips for assessing which healthcare selections you should make and how to approach your open enrollment period.

Getting a job offer can be one of the most exciting moments of your year. But what if the salary is a little lower than you expected? Everyone says you are supposed to negotiate these days, but how do you actually put that into practice...especially if you are relatively young in your career and may be facing a competitive applicant pool?In today's episode, Colby shares personal stories of his own from salary negotiations gone wrong, how to get the salary you deserve and how to approach your compensation discussion appropriately.

Being self aware is one thing, but far too often job candidates (those coming out of school, those returning to the work force or those trying to change into a new field) focus on their perceived gaps instead of the real value they can bring to a new company.In today's episode, Colby shares real experiences of colleagues he has worked with who have had to work through this challenging mindset and what everyone can do to adjust their focus to emphasize their value instead of their shortcomings.

In our last episode, we talked about why it was so important to invest in your health in order to be your best on the job. Today, we go a step further and look at HOW to actually be healthier in the modern office.Colby shares six key tips that can help anyone live a healthier lifestyle, have more energy, feel more focused and enjoy their time on the job.

How we feel has a direct impact on our work performance and yet so many of us walk through life accepting chronic illness or pain as just part of the gig. In today's episode, Colby wants to encourage every person listening to continue to invest in learning what makes their own body tick and how to develop a health plan that promotes your best life for you.

When job hunting, it can be tempting to zero in on one perceived opportunity that looks promising. The idea of quickly finding a role that is a good fit is so enticing and no one wants to have to step out of the recruitment process if another opportunity were to present itself. But this is a highly limiting approach to your job search. In today's episode, Colby explains why it is critical to keep your job prospect funnel full regardless of how close you think you may be to an offer. Tune in to learn what can cause that super promising opportunity to fall apart and how to gracefully and graciously address a situation where you receive an offer from one company but no decision from a second company.

Your personal credibility plays a huge role in whether you succeed or fail in your professional role. If you have strong credibility, your boss is more likely to trust you with bigger projects and give you freedom to tackle work on your own terms (e.g., flex time, work remotely, etc). If your credibility is lousy, be prepared to be micromanaged. But how do you build credibility if you are brand new to a role or a company? In today's episode, Colby shares examples of how credibility can help open doors on your professional path, as well as the 4 basic practices that anyone can apply to excel in the first days and weeks on a job.

A popular phrase to motivate young professionals, entrepreneurs and established professionals looking to make a career jump is to "Fake it till you make it." But is this the right phrase to use? In today's episode, Colby outlines why this popular phrase is actually harmful to professionals and what phrase we should be using instead.

Losing your job is a terrible experience, but it doesn't have to be as bad as many people think. Think of it like a major snow storm. If you have no supplies, being stuck inside for three days can be pretty painful. But if you have fresh groceries, candles, batteries and plenty of Netflix shows downloaded, the pending storm is easier to bear. Building on his own experience pre-and-post unemployment, Colby shares the Unemployment Firedrill process - seven steps everyone can and should take to prepare themselves should they lose their job without notice. In just a matter of hours, you can gain significant confidence and reduce your stress level and anxiety. Take back your power and sense of control.

Getting fired sucks, but it can happen to anyone. In this day and age of corporate mergers and restructuring, positions can be eliminated or downsized at almost any time and, often, with no notice. In today's episode, a listener asks Colby, "I just lost my job, what should I DO?" Colby walks through the critical steps everyone should follow in the moments following a termination. Listen in as he walks through each action, from what to avoid in the conversation with HR to why self care is so important to how to take control of your job search. These tips have been used by several professionals with outstanding results. Even if your job feels "safe," you need this information in your back pocket just in case. Find Colby on social media! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoffeewithColby/ Twitter: Twitter.com/colbyreade Instagram: Instagram.com/colbyreade

Getting fired is one of the most stressful, traumatic experiences we can face in modern life, outranked only by death, divorce and imprisonment. And yet millions of people will face this challenge every year. Sometimes there are warning signs, but often your pink slip comes out of nowhere. In the first part of a three-part series, Colby shares why getting fired is so traumatic and opens up with his own story of getting the boot two-months before he was supposed to get married. Listen in for tips on important steps to AVOID when going through the termination process. And stay tuned for more tips and advice coming in part two.

The saying in poker holds true - "You can't win a game in the first hand, you can only lose it in the first hand." Like a poker hand, resumes are a necessary evil in the job hunt that can do little in leading you to final success, but when done wrong can knock you out of the running entirely. You can spend hours agonizing over a document that a hiring manager may glance at for ten seconds before deciding whether to keep you in the running for a role. In today's episode, Colby shares real world insight into how to build a strong resume, what hiring managers are looking for and how to make sure your resume stands out. He also shares tips for how to make customizing your resume less painful and time consuming.

Whether you are a high powered executive overseeing a Fortune 500 company, an entrepreneur boot strapping your first start up or a recent college grad in her first nine months on the job, burn out can happen to anyone. The important thing is recognizing it and knowing how to recover from it. In this episode, Colby shares examples of what burn out really feels like that anyone can relate to, what causes it in the first place and strategies to work through it and feel your best. This is a must listen for any new professional or anyone who may be diving into a new career.

Healthcare is more complicated than ever before and with a workforce facing chronic health conditions and rampant mental health challenges, accessing that care is more important than ever. Unfortunately, many new professionals gloss over the finer points of their health plan when they start a new job. In today's episode, Colby looks at some of the key areas of your health benefits you should review as soon as you start a job in order to identify all of the perks and resources available to you to live your healthiest life.

To grow your career, you need two things - a commitment to doing your job well and the opportunity to excel. Unfortunately, opportunity doesn't make an appointment and it doesn't exactly come with a road map. In today's episode we talk about the four ways you can show up and do your job the right way every day so that you are ready to seize an opportunity when it presents itself.

What is the one job hunting tool that is more important and more valuable than a good resume or cover letter? What one strategy will get you more results than spending hours trolling job boards online? The Informational interview. In today's episode, Colby shares the value of informational interviews, how he has used these tools to get several positions along his own career path and how you can put this to work whether you are a brand new college grad or a seasoned professional making a mid-life career change.

As a nation, we desperately need a vacation and yet employees regularly forego vacation time (which is part of their negotiated compensation) for the good of the office. In this episode, Colby takes a look at why we are so hesitant to take time off, why it's a health risk and the habit that so many people fall into that sabotages their time off. Pulling from his own experience moving away from a "constantly connected" mindset to a far more productive workplace approach that utilizes regular time off, Colby shares a six-step blueprint for young professionals to maximize their own vacation time, improving their performance and mental health, without sacrificing their career trajectory.

If you aren't screwing up, you aren't growing. It's a maxim that we are taught throughout our lives but when you have a "face palm" moment at work, it can be incredibly painful. So how do you recover when something like this happens? In today's episode, Colby pulls out one of his own top-5 most embarrassing professional moments to walk through how to respond when you screw up at work and how to work through the situation in a way that can help your career.

In a follow up to episode 5, Colby talks about how to recover from making a big mistake when there is no obvious way to make things right. Listen along as he walks you through the most embarrassing moment of his career and how he managed to come back from this epic face palm.

Data shows that even the most senior leaders hate giving feedback and will often take extreme measures to avoid saying something that could be viewed as criticism even if it means the company suffers. Why are we so afraid to give constructive criticism when it's the only way for our team to grow and improve? In today's episode, Colby Reade shares two examples from his own history in the workplace ... one of which involves a thrown stapler and a rage-y manager ... and discusses how to give (and how to NOT give) effective feedback.

Few things are as frustrating as when you are TRYING to do your job and some goon in another department seems hell bent on making that impossible. How do you work through those moments of friction in a positive way in order to do your job more efficiently and effectively? In this episode of the Coffee with Colby podcast, Colby shares some real life examples of how friction between coworkers can crop up in the office, WHY it behooves you to be proactive in diffusing the tension and HOW to help your colleagues get on the same page. Enjoy!