Paul Tasca's Blog

Paul Tasca's Blog

Paul Tasca  //  

Nov 23 / 1:31pm

Winning at poker can help you win at work.

Lessons learned: calculated risk taking, investment and confidence are crucial to win at poker and at work.  When we become overly cautious and focus more on limiting losses than maximizing gains, we lose out on opportunities.  Those lost opportunities are usually more haunting than the risks we have taken and lost.

I had the rare opportunity to play poker last week with a bunch of friends from my neighborhood.  Years ago, I used to play poker regularly with friends and I was admittedly a bit rusty.  This was a very friendly game with low monetary stakes and players with variable levels of poker playing skill.  Gradually most of the risk taking, wagering and bluffing techniques came back into focus.  We played for a few hours, everyone seemed to have fun and there was one person that won more than anyone else, a few that broke even and a few, like me that lost.  I ended up losing a fairly trivial amount of money yet the one thing that I remembered and regretted most about the evening was one particular hand.  This was a hand close to the end of the evening and as such the betting was high.  I didn’t have many chips left due to taking some calculated risks that didn’t pan out.  I hadn’t won a hand for some time.  I found myself concentrating more on how much I had already lost than how much I could win.  I became uncharacteristically cautious as other players began to bet a lot of chips on their hand.  I folded down my hand rather than continue to invest chips in my cards that were good yet I thought not great enough to win.  When everyone showed their cards, it was painfully apparent that my folded hand would have actually won a substantial amount, had I continued taking risks by investing in the game.  Unfortunately, I have thought more about that one lost hand than the simple enjoyment of spending a few hours with my friends.

 Email:         paul@paultasca.com            

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Nov 11 / 5:44am

I finished my education now where's my job?

Thousands of graduating students are asking themselves this question.

 

Today’s graduating students need higher level relational skills in order to have a decent chance of getting good jobs.

The prospects are weak for high school, technical school and college graduates to get quality full time jobs.  Of the fortunate graduates who are able to get jobs, many find themselves working in positions that pay less than they imagined, are less interesting and have limited opportunities for promotion.

 

A national survey found that less than 20% of 2009 graduating college students who applied for a job actually have one.  Many of the jobs that were formerly available for young adults have either been eliminated or are being held by more experienced employees who are taking any job possible in order to hang on and ride out the economic storm. http://www.naceweb.org/press/display.asp?year=&prid=301

Paul Tasca - http://www.paultasca.com - Author of “Drumming Up Your Career”

Nov 2 / 10:41am

Beware of the potential career challenges for baby boomer men approaching (or past ) 50 years of age!

If you are a man approaching or passing fifty years of age brace yourself for some career turbulence!  Be prepared to quickly reinvent yourself by acquiring new skills and sharpening those that you already possess.

“Aging Baby Boomers are suffering a harsh employment bust.”  “People losing jobs are increasingly male and increasingly older.”So many of these men were coasting to retirement, working at good jobs and earning good pay.” http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20090730/1aolderworkers30_cv.art.htm

Whether you are a long tenured top performer who feels secure at your job or an individual who is less tenured and less secure, it really doesn’t matter.  Once you hit and pass the big five O, be prepared for change!

  

Paul Tasca - http://www.paultasca.com - Author of “Drumming Up Your Career”

Oct 16 / 9:40am

People skills or technical skills, which are more important?

It is a great feeling to know that you are a technical expert or have achieved technical competency at something!  Yet the most important skills are the ability to communicate, build relationships and work with for or supervise virtually anyone while consistently achieving results.  Numerous large studies have confirmed that people skills, sometimes called “soft skills” are the most desirable and impactful skills for personal and career success.

 

A twenty-year study of leadership effectiveness conducted by Stanford University’s School of Business concluded that about 15% of one’s success in leading organizations comes from technical skills and knowledge, while 85% comes from the ability to connect with people and engender trust and mutual understanding. http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/2003entrepreneurshipconf.shtml

 

Paul Tasca - http://www.paultasca.com  - Author of “Drumming Up Your Career”

Oct 9 / 8:38am

Everyone Needs to Know How to Sell

We are all sellers! Whether or not your occupational title or business card contains the word sales, we are all highly dependent on our ability to persuade.

Persuasion is most easily accomplished by those who posses highly developed communication skills that allow them to quickly build rapport with others. Sometimes this rapport building occurs naturally when you meet a person and instantaneously like them or share several things in common with them. More often the persuasion process is more challenging due to lack of commonality between you and another individual. More times than not, when we initially meet someone we are very cautious and often expect the worst. 

High performing individuals have developed the relational ability to establish rapport with virtually anyone, even people with whom they have little in common. For example, as consumers we don’t just buy products from businesses rather we invest in solutions to our problems that are ideally provided by people that we trust or those that we can talk with and who seem much like us. 

So if you ever hear yourself saying or thinking something like “selling, oh I could never do that,” please reconsider.

Paul Tasca - http://www.paultasca.com – Author of “Drumming Up Your Career”

Oct 2 / 9:33am

Stay at Home for Higher Education?

Recent studies predict the end of traditional classroom education..!

MY Take... Personally, I get Goosebumps when I hear the term disruptive technology as I have been fortunate having spent much of my career working for a company who developed and sold disruptive technology.  D.T. can be thought of as a vastly better mousetrap!  If you own or sell the better trap, opportunities abound!  If you are competing against it, be sure that your personal skill sets are highly developed!

In September, the Washington Monthly author Kevin Carey wrote “the day is coming—sooner than many people think—when a great deal of money is going to abruptly melt out of the higher education system, just as it has in scores of other industries that traffic in information that is now far cheaper and more easily accessible than it has ever been before. Much of that money will end up in the pockets of students in the form of lower prices, a boon and a necessity in a time when higher education is the key to prosperity.” Similarly predictive statements have been made by World magazine’s Marvin Olasky, Harvard business school professor Clayton Christensen, and entrepreneur Michael Horn who liken the quality, price and availability of on line education to a disruptive technology.

The US Department of Education recently published a study that concluded “students in online learning conditions performed better than those receiving face to face instruction.” http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/opepd/ppss/reports.html#edtech

 

Paul Tasca - http://www.paultasca.com - Author of “Drumming Up Your Career”

Sep 19 / 8:20am

"This New Generation, They dont want to Work!"

As a speaker, coach and consultant, I work extensively with business people most of whom are Baby Boomer or Generation X aged managers.  These managers continually tell me that “these kids (Millennials) just don’t want to or don’t know how to work!”  Yet as I speak at schools and colleges, the Millennials themselves tell me that many of their bosses don’t know how to mange them very well.  They say that their supervisors don’t understand what is important, how to motivate them or even how to effectively communicate with the millennial generation of employees. I often find myself acting as an interpreter and negotiator between these disconnected generations.

If you were born between 1979 and 1999 give or take a year, you are considered to be part of the millennial generation.  You have probably already heard people that are members of other older generations, Gen X ers, baby boomers, say that you or your entire generation is just …well….different.  Recognize that there have always been differences between each generation and its predecessors, yet the gap in understanding and cooperation between Millennials and other generations is massive.  The chasm between the generations is hurting everyone.  For example, this generational communication gap is preventing many young adult job seekers from getting quality jobs and is also hampering their ability to move up in many organizations run by Gen Xer’s and Baby Boomers.  The gap is also costing US businesses by limiting companies’ ability to attract fine new talent to help grow and improve performance that will ultimately grow their businesses.

Paul Tasca - http://www.paultasca.com  - Author of “Drumming Up Your Career”

Sep 12 / 5:24am

Fast Spreading Virus With No Let Up in Sight

 

Relax, I’m not talking about H1N1, nor am I referring to any of the myriad of computer related viruses.  I am posting about a communication related virus that if left untreated can spread exponentially and become a chronic communication disease.  The disease is called Upspeak.

Up speak is speaking declarative sentences with a rising vocal intonation at the end of the sentence rather than a constant or declining tone as is normally associated with a statement.  This rising tone makes the allegedly declarative statement sound like a question.

The language based Up Speak disease had its first outbreak in the US during the 1980’s in the San Fernando Valley area of Southern California.  The original characterization of Valley Girls initially featured this teeny bopper variety of somewhat ditzy upspeak.  Since the initial outbreak, Up Speak has infected and is now practiced, somewhat habitually and perhaps unconsciously, by millions of Americans.  Admittedly when someone up speaks to me I make certain assumptions about their level of communication expertise or maturity.  Evidently I am not alone in my bias as many employers and business execs tell me that they too react mostly negatively to the symptoms of the disease.

If you are truly interested in helping to curb this disease, ask the next person who up speaks to you “are you telling me or asking me?”  

Paul Tasca - http://www.paultasca.com  -Author of “Drumming Up Your Career”