Career Stewardship with Michael Melcher

Michael Melcher has ANOTHER podcast – "Meanwhile: A Podcast to Improve Your Life" – and this week we are bringing you a sample episode for you to check. "Meanwhile" is a podcast that Michael created with another coach, also named Michael, and it covers all ways you can improve your career and life meanwhile everything else is going on. Topics include listening, powerful questions, when to finish or give up long-term goals, creativity, the positive side of boredom and many others. In this bonus episode, the Michaels talk about A's and B's, terms that refer to people who give you energy and those who sap your energy. Guess which ones you should focus on? Enjoy hearing this other side of Michael M. Next week we'll be back with another Career Stewardship episode.

In this week's episode, we speak with Liz Craft and Sarah Fain, veteran TV writers/producers/showrunners who are also the hosts of the wonderful podcast, Happier in Hollywood. Liz, Sarah and Michael discuss the ingredients for thriving in a long-term, gig-economy career, the ingredients of successful partnerships (ask yourself, "what are you pretending not to know?") and why good Midwestern manners may be the secret to career success. Also, how ignorance can sometimes be your biggest asset. A fun-filled exploration of all the ways that your career may have a lot in common with that of glamorous Hollywood television writers! Finally, a gauntlet is thrown down: do you want to be part of the next generation or the last generation? A must-listen-to episode!

Episode 16 is the second of our two episodes dealing with starting off right. Coach Hanna Hart joins us again with her provocative idea that the onboarding begins in the interview process. While we often experience interviews as stressful, high-stakes situations where you just want future employers to LIKE us, we learn that you can use interviews as vehicles to set ourselves up for success. And alternately, if we just assume that things will work out on their own, they might not. This topic is especially important in our current Zoom world, where we can't just show up to a new job and build relationships around the proverbial water cooler. Listen in for some specific ways to empower yourself to be successful.

We put a lot of effort into getting new jobs. But that's not the end of the story. How do we ensure things go well once we've started? Episodes 15 and 16 are both about starting off right. In this episode, Michael speaks with colleague Dennis Adsit, Ph.D., about misconceptions we can have in starting new jobs, especially in very senior positions. We learn that there is a huge amount of new-job roadkill out there and that relying on your strengths can sometimes be counterproductive. To borrow the title of a well-known coaching book, what got you here won't get you there. Listen for some specific tips on starting off right.

Negotiation may not be something you do every day but doing it well can have long-lasting benefits. In this week's episode, Michael is joined again by his colleague, Rebecca Zucker, who lays down the law about why you should always negotiate – even if it gives you the heebie-jeebies. We learn why it's a mistake to assume that merit alone will lead to appropriate rewards and that the best way for people to meet your needs is for you to share what they actually are. We learn how to have a pre-offer conversation, how to "bundle" your priorities, and how to position yourself as being on the same side as your counterparty, not their opposition. Also, why you might consider hiring a female divorce attorney.

When you are reaching out to meet someone or asking them for help of some kind, your success will often depend on how you make the request. We have a lot of hang-ups about asking for things: we often feel uncomfortable doing so, and we often have a limited idea of how others might help us. So getting good at making requests is a big deal. In this episode, Michael is joined by Rebecca Zucker, a partner at Next Step Partners, who has some very clear views about what does and doesn't work when it comes to making requests. We learn that you can't expect the world to read your mind, that going in "wide" can be less polite than being specific, and, as with anything else, it pays to do your homework!

Vision is an important part of career stewardship but coming up with a career vision isn't always easy. You might not know where you want to be in the future or you might have lots of different ideas, none of which seems more than 15% likely. But there are specific practices you can undertake to explore and articulate your potential future life. In this episode, we learn the value of articulating the "what" before we know the "how," how to transform vague ideas into compelling vision statements, and the role of experimentation in understanding what you really want. Michael shares how an implausible dream led him to an exciting life living in a Taipei hospital. To quote Larry David, this episode is PRETTY, PRETTY, PRETTY GOOD.

"We're living with five generations in the workplace for the first time. I like to think of it as an intergenerational potluck where we each bring to the table what we do best."

-- Chip Conley, New York Times bestselling author

In Episode 5, we talked about dealing with age at a tactical level. In this episode, we blow up our assumptions about what it means to be "older" and talk about the cool things that may await you when you are an "elder." Michael is joined by the wise entrepreneur and bestselling author Chip Conley. They discuss building careers of relevance and meaning at all stages of life – and it's an episode full of golden nuggets.

Chip Conley is the hospitality maverick who helped Airbnb's founders turn their fast-growing tech start-up into a global hospitality brand. He's also the founder of the Modern Elder Academy. Chip and Michael discuss:

• Midlife relevance: Chip's experience at Airbnb, where he was twice as old as the average employee
• Navigating career transitions: learning to cultivate and repurpose what you've learned
• Building intergenerational alliances where wisdom flows in both directions
• His latest entrepreneurial (ad)venture, The Modern Elder Academy
• Cultivating learning: what Chip has been writing in his "Wisdom Book" every week over the past 32 years
• Chip's favorite book of all time and its central lesson

Informational interviews are one of the most important ways we learn about careers and jobs, build connections, and present ourselves as potentially wonderful hires. Info interviews might seem lower-stakes and less formal than actual job interviews, but the Career Stewardship podcast is here to challenge you to take them seriously! In this episode, Michael is rejoined by New York coach Sarah Stamboulie, for her take on hard-core prep for informational interviews. The more you put into something, the more you are going to get out of it, and Sarah shows us how to put in way more than you might have planned – consider it the difference between throwing together a tuna casserole versus cooking a five-course gourmet dinner. Also, Michael reveals that when you are meeting a super successful person who used to be your chill study partner in b-school, you still need to screw your head on straight before the meeting.

What really goes on in interviews? In this episode, Michael explains why you should take interview feedback with a grain of salt and why you shouldn't expect interviewers to do their jobs very well. We drill down into the specifics of "competency-based interviewing," which sounds pedestrian and a little dull but is essential to showing your real value and wowing your audience. Michael also gives some tips about what to do if you are lacking what appears to be a key job requirement (such as "MBA preferred" or "10 years of sector experience required"). We take a trip down memory lane and discover why being the most interesting and charming candidate of the day doesn't mean you'll get the job – and clarify what to aim for instead.