Today we are thrilled to sit down with Loralyn Mears, Ph.D., who is the founder of STEERus, a soft skills development company that works specifically with the Gen Z community to train up their soft skills as a pathway to success and productivity. We kickstart the conversation with a discussion on redundancy hires and strategy, before diving into how our mainstream education systems are creating soft-skill deficiencies by stunting vocabulary and growth around emotional articulation. Loralyn shares her thoughts on what shaped Gen Z and how this created a generation that uses their voices for what matters and aren’t afraid to walk away, before elaborating on the ways that employer mindsets are shifting. We also have a rich conversation all about the current anti-work movement and the many realizations that people have had since they no longer have to commute, plus you'll hear some valuable parting advice for anyone looking to create their own security and benefits outside of the corporate golden cage. To hear Loralyn’s perspectives on everything from tattleware and the Pomodoro method to how she recommends managing your notifications and why everyone is so burned out, tune in now!

 

Key Points From This Episode:

 

• Hear how Loralyn was fully remote long before we all put on our COVID slippers.
• The impact of members of a bootstrapped startup team getting sick.
• The concept of strategically building redundancy into their codebase.
• A bit about her rich background and how she ended up going into soft skills development.
• Diving into broken relationships and the results of being deficient in soft skills.
• How our education funnels us and doesn't teach us to articulate our emotions or full self. 
• Diving into the relationship between mass education and the current anti-work movement.
• What shaped Gen Z and how they learned to raise their voices for what matters.
• Discussing the Tang Ping phenomenon and concern over the climate crisis
• Finding employers who put people before process.
• The realizations people have had since commute and office pressure has reduced.
• How the concept of a workweek still works but there needs to be latitude on either side. 
• Talking about tattleware, the relevance of middle management, and the Pomodoro method.
• Death of a thousand cuts and how Loralyn manages her notifications.
• Hear Loralyn's insights into why everyone is so burned out and what the answer is. 
• The need for a shift in the employer mentality of ownership over their employee's time.
• Discussing people working multiple jobs, and how remote doesn't mean disengaged.
• Hear some excellent advice on what to do to break out of the 'golden cage' of benefits. 

 

Tweetables:

 

“The final outcome [of deficient soft skills] is broken relationships. People have much higher anxiety because they’re uncertain on how to proceed. They don’t know if it’s a safe space, they don’t know how to regard it.” — @steerus_io [0:08:51]

 

“[Gen Z] were shaped by the climate crisis, 9/11, all of these horrific things. They said, ‘You know what? I’m going to do what matters. I want to do what matters to me.’ They learned how to raise their voices.” — @steerus_io [0:13:38]

 

“Process has been put ahead of people for so long, that people are starting to rebel from it.” — @steerus_io [0:16:55]

 

“Gen Z knows their worth more than any other generation, and they’re not afraid to walk away.” — @steerus_io [0:18:22] 

 

“Through this pandemic epiphany, [we need to] take the time to reflect and to say, ‘What matters to me? What am I willing to tolerate? What am I not willing to tolerate?’ Again, back to that self-awareness and starting there.” — @steerus_io [0:38:27] 

 

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

 

Dr. Loralyn Mears on LinkedIn

STEERus

STEERus on Twitter

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