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Staying “Mentally Fit” During COVID to Combat Job Stress

I’ve received many positive reviews on workshops on staying “mentally fit” during COVID. These sessions were delivered for the staff and faculty of a few colleges/universities. Here are a few highlights from the session to help combat job stress.

It’s worth noting that stress is helpful. Stress is what kept our ancestors alive. We wouldn’t be around without stress. However, even though we no longer have to deal with the threat of sabre tooth tigers eating us, our modern day stresses often seem just as dangerous.

In these challenging times, many are having their mental states tested. It is interesting how we are often ready to take care of our physical health, yet when was the last time that you prioritized your mental health? Whether you’re an employer or an employee, faculty or staff, (or really anybody), we could all use a little help on the “mental fitness” front. Here are a few of my favourite helpful concepts.

Awareness

The first step is to admit that you have a problem. You may not be on a 12-step program to recover from addiction, though you may be stressed from work, constantly changing circumstances, uncertainty of the future or a number of other anxiety-inducing thoughts many of us are having during lockdown.

Take a note of when you have those thoughts. Or think back on your day/week and identify those moments of stress and anxiety. If you have stress in your workplace you might not be able to remove the factors that cause it, though you could change your perspective. Start with Awareness then you can shift your perspective.

Perspective

“For there is nothing good or bad and thinking makes it so” -Hamlet, Act 2 Scene 2: William Shakespeare

Here’s a thought: COVID is neither good nor bad. Our thoughts about COVID make it good or bad.

Wait, how can I say that when people have lost loved ones? Could that loss turn into gratitude for the times you’ve spent with that person or the people that you still have around you? Could you give it meaning so that you can move on and thrive instead of just surviving? I’m not saying that you have to, I’m just asking if you could.

Go through those points of stress and anxiety that you recorded in Awareness and see if you can change your perspective. Gratitude can be a helpful tool to change that perspective.

“I have so much more work now that everything has been moved online” can turn into “I’m so thankful I have a job”.
“I lost my job due to COVID” can turn into “I can find my next new opportunity and chapter in my career”.
“I have no idea what the future holds” can turn into “I’m excited about the infinite opportunities and possibilities for the future”.

While it might seem like semantics, consider if your thoughts become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Wouldn’t you rather have better thoughts to be fulfilled?

Think of perspective as your “mental COVID mask”. You may encounter negative thoughts, though with an awareness to reflect and potentially change your perspective, you can prevent those thoughts from “infecting” you and ruining your day.

STFAR

“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom” -Viktor Frankl

If you’re with me so far, you might be asking yourself: How do I change my perspectives?

Something out there (or maybe in your head) happens and you often just react to it. Sometimes in a positive way. Sometimes in a negative way. What if you took some time to reflect?

I use the acronym STFAR to help with the reflection process:

Stimulus: Something that happens. That something could be outside. Or sometimes that something is inside your head.
Thought: The Stimulus triggers a thought. Sometimes conscious. Often not.
Feeling: An energy in your body that comes from the Thought.
Action: What you did as a result of that Feeling (which could be doing nothing)
Result: The outcome based on what you did (or didn’t do).

Let’s put this into practice.

What comes to mind when I say COVID?

For many, it is THOUGHTS of stress. Cabin fever from having to stay locked down. Missing summer vacations. Loss of opportunities.

Those thoughts may cause you to FEEL sad, lonely, angry, and even more stressed.

The ACTION you take might be to eat to distract yourself, escape in your social media feed, or watch a streaming service to numb the stress.

However, the RESULT is a few extra COVID-pounds gained.

Let’s try that again while intercepting thoughts and changing perspectives.

What comes to mind when I say COVID? Let’s find a beneficial perspective.

For some, the THOUGHT of not having to commute comes to mind and having more time to do what you want to do.

With that thought you might FEEL more motivated to exercise or learn that skill you’ve always wanted like speaking a new language or the ukulele or whatever that is.

Hopefully that feeling is enough for you to take ACTION and start practicing your Spanish/Mandarin, chord positioning or strumming.

The RESULT is a new skill plus a sense of achievement on the growth.

While being aware, and changing your perspectives may seem challenging now, consider that if you were training to run a marathon, you’d slowly but surely be able to run a kilometer, then 10, then 20, then 42 and beyond! With practice, you can do it.

Practice

“Knowledge is only potential power. It becomes power only when, and if, it is organized into definite plans of action, and directed to a definite end.” -Napoleon Hill

Mental fitness is not about just knowing a tactic or strategy. It’s about putting them into practice consistently and over time. Being aware of your thoughts can be hard enough. Let alone constantly changing your perspective on the thoughts that don’t serve you.

The key is to prioritize time. I use the concept of “non-negotiable time” to help. That’s 60 mins daily (or 30 mins or as much time as you can manage) to invest time on these and other helpful mental fitness activities. Just like you might take time to go to the gym, take some time to go to the “mental gym”.

Use part of your non-negotiable time to reflect on your awareness throughout the day. As you reflect on your thoughts, look to change the perspectives for the thoughts that don’t serve you. Turn those thoughts and perspectives into action towards whatever result that you want.

Meditation is another great practice to help with your mental fitness. Think of it as practice to increase the space between stimulus and response. When meditating, you focus on your breath, your thoughts, a word or something else depending on the type of meditation. Mediation exercises your focus on the present moment.

Even simple mindfulness exercises where you pay attention to mundane activities (I.e. washing your hands), or use your non-dominant hand to do something (I.e. brush your teeth), could help you put your mental fitness into practice.

Summary

Start your path to mental fitness with awareness. Take that awareness and change your perspective. Use the STFAR model to help reflect and change your perspective. Allocate time to “exercise” and put your mental fitness activities into practice. When you do so, you’ll probably find that you’re less stressed at work, as well as less stressed at home. Especially in these trying times. They have worked for many others.

Why not give it a shot?

About Luki

Luki is a career coach and likes to say that he has found his purpose helping others find theirs. A former management consultant and campus recruiting lead, he shares his SIWIKE Stuff I Wish I Knew Earlier through books, podcasts, videos and other content. Connect with him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukidanu/ or Subscribe on YouTube to access other content https://youtube.com/focusinspired

TalentEgg Renews Partnership with Odgers Berndtson for 2022 CEOx1Day – Future Leaders Summit

October 25, 2021 / Simon Ng / 0 Comments

Today, TalentEgg, Canada’s leading online career resource for students, new grads, and early career professionals, announced its renewed partnership with Odgers Berndtson’s CEOx1Day,. This one-of-a-kind initiative is Odgers Berndtson’s premiere leadership development program offering ambitious third and fourth-year college and university students an opportunity to engage with a diverse cross-section of Canada’s top executives.

To the partnership, TalentEgg brings exclusive access to its nationwide network of career-focused early career talent and distinct employer branding expertise in support of this unparalleled professional development opportunity!

“We are delighted to continue the partnership, bringing students an opportunity to participate in this unique leadership development program, as well as supporting Odgers Berndtson in recruiting the best and the brightest candidates to the CEOx1Day Future Leaders Summit taking place in February.” said Mary Barroll, President of TalentEgg.

Founded in 2013, the CEOx1Day Program matches upper year students with top executives from the country’s leading organizations. Every year hundreds of students apply to participate in the program.

This year, 50 students will be selected to participate in a one-day virtual summit chalked full of interactive panels, small group breakout sessions led by CEOs and Presidents, career and leadership insights from CHROs and Heads of People and Culture/Talent, and exclusive networking opportunities.

Participating companies in the CEOx1Day Future Leaders Summit include: AGF, Aecon, Assent Compliance, Digital Research Alliance of Canada, Indspire, Hallmark Canada. Right to Play International, and Shopify.

As a part of its investment in the CEOx1Day Future Leaders Summit, TalentEgg looks forward to providing its vast talent network with: an authentic Gen Z voice to the promotional campaign, high quality digital engagement, resources, video testimonials and insider access to the various recruitment phases of the program.

Of the renewed partnership, Lori Dyne, Chief Marketing Officer at Odgers Berndtson said, “TalentEgg is a wonderful partner that helps us connect with top student talent from across the country. As a key career resource for this demographic TalentEgg shares in our philosophy of investing in the professional development of Canada’s future leaders. They have done a tremendous job in producing video testimonials from CEOx1Day Alumni that we are leveraging as a part of the program’s digital strategy”.

“TalentEgg is also supporting our strategic promotion of the CEOx1Day Future Leaders Summit and the tremendous opportunity it offers to students as they embark on their transition from post-secondary to career via a microsite hosted on their platform and cross promotion on their robust social media channels”, added Dyne.

Other 2022 CEOx1Day program partners include Hogan Assessments, which helps businesses succeed through extensive leadership assessments designed to predict career performance for organizations on a global scale, media company Globe and Mail, Indspire, and educational partner, JDC Central.

Interested student candidates may apply online at ceox1day.ca or talentegg.ca/ceox1day between October 25th and November 25th, 2021

About TalentEgg

TalentEgg is Canada’s leading job site and online career resource for students, recent graduates, and early career professionals.

Since 2008, TalentEgg has helped millions of students and recent grads hatch their careers, and has worked with hundreds of Canadian employers to successfully attract top talent to their organizations.

While connecting our talent network with meaningful foundational and early career opportunities from top employers in Canada, TalentEgg also:

– provides thousands of free career resources created specifically with students and recent grads in mind; and,

– supports an active and diverse community of professionals who are passionate about empowering the careers of the next generation of talent, including employers, career centres, educators, and student leaders.

To find out more about how TalentEgg can help connect you with students, recent grads, and early career professionals visit us at employers.talentegg.ca.

How Career Educator Ken Lee Continues to Support Student Lives, Personally and Professionally

October 13, 2021 / Irene Chan / 0 Comments

Every student has different backgrounds, experiences and displays different traits that make their own stories unique. As a Career Educator, it can be challenging to truly support someone when we fail to understand them as a person and their life circumstances. That’s why Ken Lee, a Career Educator at Ryerson University, always ensures he goes the extra mile when supporting the professional development of his students.

As a Career Education Specialist with the Career & Co-op Centre at Ryerson University, Ken designs and delivers high-impact programming to equip students for successful careers in a rapidly evolving world. This can range from organizing conversations where students can learn the power of their degrees to creating responsive courses in which our community can build on their job search-related skills.

We had the chance to speak with Ken to learn more about how he approaches supporting the career development of students!

Why Pursue Career Coaching?

“It was a well-planned accident, to say the least,” shares Ken. “In my final year of graduation, I had the privilege to take on a work-study position where I was providing feedback to students on their resumes, cover letters, and LinkedIn profiles. I soon came across an opportunity with a non-profit organization to support community members in finding employment. I jokingly applied, thinking that there was no way I would ever get a callback. A few weeks later, they gave me a job offer!” Now, Ken has found himself on the road to a successful journey as a Career Coach. After all, he won the award in 2021 for the Best Career Coach/Educator at the 2021 TalentEgg Recruitment Excellence Awards and Conference back in June.

Meaningful Interactions

Students go through a variety of emotions when it comes to developing their careers. While some are at the top of their game with a polished resume and cover letter, others don’t even know where to begin. Regardless of students’ progress, anyone and everyone can benefit from receiving support from their campus’s career coach.

That’s why we asked Ken how he went about helping students in making their school-to-work transition during the pandemic.

“In helping students build careers for life, it is important to make sure they have all the necessary skills, knowledge and expertise to flourish by the time they graduate. This can manifest in many ways, from engaging in one-to-one conversations with students as well as facilitating webinars on different topics, such as job searching.”

Student Pain Points

Job searching is a challenging process, even under normal circumstances. From the perspective of a career coach, Ken explains that a significant pain point for students is the variety of prospective job industries being significantly affected by the pandemic.

When Ken supports his students, he emphasizes the importance of showing students how to explore spaces where their skills, interests, and values intersect and reminding them of how resilient they are–all while displaying a sense of optimism.

Until now, companies have recruited students and alumni by physically visiting campuses. With the pandemic accelerating the move to virtual environments, organizations have been more creative about developing and recruiting early talent.

For fellow employers, Ken comments on the importance of preparing students for the workforce and what initiatives companies can take to showcase each candidate’s strengths.

“I would love to see them continue to help students understand and develop the skills they need for their workplace and the current world of work. For example, beyond the case competitions and hackathons, consider hosting a regular monthly challenge or exercise where students can practice and flex their data visualization, storytelling, and post-production skills and receive feedback from current employees on their work. This would help build their brand and diversify their talent since they would reach students beyond the academic disciplines they may hire from regularly.

Now, when it comes to connecting with students during the pandemic, I would communicate and work with a school’s Career & Co-op Centre as someone who works in higher education. They know their students best and can educate you on nuances that would make your campus recruitment strategy more comprehensive.”

Advice for Other Career Coaches

So, what can we take away from Ken’s words? More importantly, how can other aspiring career coaches follow in the supportive footsteps of Ken?

“As Career Educators, it is often challenging to truly support someone when we fail to understand them as a person along with their life circumstances,” explains Ken. “Case in point, perhaps you are working with a student who’s the first person from their family enrolling in higher education. They may have never received guidance on the importance of networking or even how to do it. This can be a stressful process, so being more patient and understanding may be key in making sure the student feels well supported.”

And so, while we are the experts in career education, we are not the experts of the lives of those we work with, nor are we the experts of what they need. For all students out there, be sure to continue staying curious and enjoying all the future adventures you have. As for career coaches, continue to be patient and understand your students, as that’s the support they’re looking for most!

The Modern Workplace and Hiring in the Pandemic World with SNC-Lavalin

October 10, 2021 / Gavin Krohman / 0 Comments

SNC-Lavalin is a Montreal-based company focused on engineering, procurement, and construction services. Boasting over 50,000 employees worldwide, SNC-Lavalin is one of Canada’s biggest companies. Their teams are agile, collaborative, and driven by possibilities. By employing anti-discrimination hiring practices, SNC-Lavalin has built itself a diverse employee roster. They believe diverse groups make better decisions – which in turn, leads to better business. They put resources into each and every one of their employees, creating a structure of support and training. This helps them develop their employees, giving each one the power to enhance their performance in positive, impactful ways. The digital, modern workplace has been accelerated due to the pandemic. However, SNC-Lavalin had already adopted many of these practices well before Covid-19 began, allowing them to lead the transition for Canadian companies.

Career Opportunities

SNC-Lavalin provides many career paths for students and graduates within their organization. The most obvious example is the vast opportunities available in a wide and international company like SNC-Lavalin. Their vast resources allow employees to work on a diverse range of projects across industries. In many large companies, a person can become lost in the sea of employees. SNC-Lavalin avoids this by providing mentorships throughout their company and a graduate development program that allows its employees to further their knowledge and refine their skills.

Being such a large and important company, SNC-Lavalin had to adjust quickly when the pandemic hit. Luckily, they already had the necessary online and virtual tools in place to continue business as usual. They were able to continue focusing their priorities on ensuring the safety and wellbeing of their people and candidates. The new workplace model the pandemic has brought requires employers to help students and new grads transition. When asked about this, Ariane Lamy, a Campus & Diversity Recruitment Manager, replied, “We’re a company that drives innovation, so we’re committed to the next generation of original thinkers, wherever you are in Canada. You’ll work on our major projects in Canada, where we will provide you with excellent mentoring and learning support. Great team spirit and collaboration define our culture. And guided by our transformative leadership, we’re always improving our workplace for all, with the necessary online and virtual tools in place.”

Anti-Discriminatory Hiring

At any organization, it is essential to keep hiring processes fair and anti-discriminatory. SNC-Lavalin approaches this topic seriously. Each job description is reviewed with a gender decoder tool to reduce subtle biases in job postings. This increases the chances of candidates from less common gender demographics, particularly in industries dominated by one. Their next two approaches focus on blind hiring. Resumes are often stripped of names and headshots to ensure personal prejudices are not factored into the hiring process. Secondly, they employ skill scorecards to examine each employee based on their practical knowledge rather than aspects of their personality or appearance. By engaging in these practices, SNC-Lavalin reduces the chances of any discriminatory hiring practices occurring, keeping the hiring process fair and leading to a much more diverse workplace.

Hiring and the Modern Workplace

As this new workplace model continues to develop, recruitment and hiring trends will continue to be impacted. Unlike many organizations, SNC-Lavalin’s recruitment process wasn’t affected during the pandemic as they were able to adapt rapidly and implement the necessary tools to develop a virtual recruitment process. However, they do believe they will see changes in major hiring trends in the future.

For a company like SNC-Lavalin that predominantly hires employees with professional designations, campus programs will continue to be a significant source of potential candidates. Next, the team at SNC-Lavalin believes that worldwide team collaboration will also increase. As the pandemic has accelerated remote work, the ability to work internationally and collaborate with teams across the globe will undoubtedly rise. Their final few thoughts all focus on an increasingly digital workplace. As documents become digitalized, SNC-Lavalin believes they will see a rise in no-resume hiring and video introductions for their candidates. The team here at TalentEgg thinks the same thing, which is why we have developed our Candidate Video Showcase, which allows candidates and employers to facilitate video applications and interviews. The modern workplace and hiring processes are undoubtedly becoming much more digital. Being aware and staying at the forefront of this transition period allows companies like SNC-Lavalin to succeed.

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