Name: Community Conversations with Cornerstone: The Power of the Pivot
Uploaded: 2025-03-20T17:31:13.022Z
Duration: 58 min 28 s
Description: Community Conversations with Cornerstone: The Power of the Pivot

Transcript for "Community Conversations with Cornerstone: The Power of the Pivot": Oops. Hello, everyone. We're about to start our community conversations with Cornerstone, Power of the Pivot, success strategies for personal and professional growth. We're gonna wait another thirty seconds or so. We see people filing in, and, I I can't wait to to start this this conversation with a with a group, that's absolutely phenomenal. Looks like we're coming in. And if you don't mind in your chat, tell us where you're coming from. You might find a friend in the chat. Okay. Hello, everyone, and welcome to our webinar, Power the Pivot, Success Strategies for Personal and Professional Growth, the second event in our Community Conversations with Cornerstone Series. I'm Michelle Clark, executive director of Federal Alliances and Growth at Cornerstone, and I'm delighted to have you here with us today. Before we dive into the presentation, I would like to give some housekeeping rules. To the right, you'll see that the chat, and I see you're working. We see Honolulu, Washington, DC, Boston. Right now, I'd love to be in Honolulu. There's also some documents. There's you'll see docs. If you click on that, you'll see some, curated resources that our team has has, provided to you from our speakers and from Cornerstone. The q and a, please, throughout the presentation, we'll be monitoring this, and we'll be looking we'll we'll be answering as we go the Q and A as you put them in there. So please don't be shy. This is meant to be a conversation and, we're here for you. The webinar will be recorded. So if you have to run for an emergency, you can see the rest later and you can share with your colleagues at a later time. In today's rapidly evolving world, the ability to pivot and adapt is very crucial for both both professional and professional professional and and personal success. The webinar is designed to provide participants with the tools and strategies needed to thrive amidst change. We are fortunate to have a panel of experienced leaders and practitioners who will share their insights on pivoting successfully with practitioners who will share their insights on pivoting successfully with resilience and fostering a supportive and empathetic team culture. Before we dive in today's in today's discussion, I'd like you to meet, Mika, the the our moderator, Mika. Welcome, Mika. It's so great to see you. She's a workforce transformation specialist and renowned government workforce expert with a wealth of experience in helping organizations and individuals navigate change. She's been a driving force behind this series, so stay tuned for our future dates of events you can join. Mika, you there? I'm here. Thank you. I popped on early, and I was just excited about this webinar since it's the second in our series already. Thank you so much, Michelle. Thank you to the Cornerstone team, and welcome. Hi, friends. Thank you so much for joining us today for this important conversation. I am delighted to be able to navigate this series, community conversations with Cornerstone, for you all based on topics that are timely, relevant, and really important for us to be highlighting. So this conversation is all about you all, and we wanna hear from you in the chat, in q and a, and our speakers are all experts, either former feds, public servants, in and out of government, in industry, associations, now business owners. You're gonna have a lot of fun navigating these conversations today. So make good use of your time and ask them some questions. To get us started and maybe to lighten the mood just a little bit and see where we're at today across our community, we're gonna invite you all to join in in the chat as well and answer this question, the same question I'm gonna ask each of our speakers as I invite each one up to say hello, introduce themselves very briefly. And I thought we could just think about if we were to imagine we had one superpower, just one, anyone, that could help us navigate change and uncertainty in the current environment that we're navigating, whether personal or professional, what would it be? So I'm gonna first introduce Jenny Mattingly. Jenny, come up to the stage. Jenny is vice president for government affairs at the Center for Presidential Transition and at the Partnership for Public Service. Jenny, say hi and give us a little intro and maybe tell us your superpower. That's exciting. I gotta think it superpowers change by the day for me, so depending on where I'm at. But, anyways, hi, everyone. Hi, Mika. Thanks for having me today. Excited to chat with everyone. As Mika said, I'm with the Partnership for Public Service currently. I've been here for about two years. I handle a lot of our policy portfolio, but also our work right now helping support civil servants as they navigate the current, environment that they're in, and so lots of resources, and I know some of those are in the links out there, but happy to answer questions. And then I've been in and out of government, so I love the topic of pivot because I've been in government twice, in very different roles, and I've been in many different private sector, positions each time. And so I guess my superpower thinking about all that is really power to make connections. And so because that's been so important for me across the arc of my career is really being able to build and sustain connections with my network. I love that, Jenny. I mean, all of us are connected as speakers on today's session too, and it is so important to stay connected across the community, across networks to to navigate changes, whether personal or professional. Thanks for that. Next up, I'm gonna call up Deidra. Welcome. Deidra herself is a former long time Fed. She's also a leadership expert coach, and founder of Concerning Learning LLC. Deidra wanted to say hi, introduce yourself, and tell us what your superpower would be today. Hello, everyone. My well, I am Deidra Welcome, founder and principal of Concerning Learning, where we help organizations perform better by meeting clients where they are to help them to cocreate and reimagine a place where everybody belongs and thrives. So my super one thing I did forget is I am a former Fed of twenty seven years, sixteen years at FAA, eight at Department of Energy, a year and a half at Census, and two years at Department of Transportation. My superpower is in navigating change and uncertainty is transformational empathy. What I mean by that is I don't just understand people. I deeply tune in to what they need, especially in times of flux. Whether it's guiding a leader through some mindset shifts with coaching or creating a learning experience where they feel like they're getting a warm hug and a push forward, a gentle nudge, not a push, and facilitating tough conversations with grace and courage. So I like to help people feel seen, heard, and capable. And in this world that's constantly changing and and and with all the with the chaos and everything going on, I like to help people feel grounded and and and and approach leadership as a human, like a magnet. So I like to draw in people to help them to navigate the change. So I will stop there, but I love, helping people with with empathy. I love that superpower too. That's something I think we can all borrow from and learn to adapt to as well. So thanks, Diedra, for being with us. I'm excited to hear more about that concept of transformational empathy. That's amazing. Our next guest is mister Jason Breifel. I'd be surprised if any of you don't know his name. Some heroes don't wear capes, and they also don't always, enter into the spotlight. And Jason has been a fierce fierce advocate for good government for probably over half of my career, which I spent over twenty years in government. He is a good government friend, an amazing advocate, works on policy, and he is a master networker himself being very connected to the federal space even though he's not a fed. I am so excited to bring you up, Jason, and say hi. Introduce yourself and tell us what your superpower is today. Oh, thanks so much, Mika and Michelle and the Cornerstone team. I'm really happy to be here. As you said, I've been married to a federal worker for almost fifteen years now and, working in in this space. I'm at Shaw, Brainsford and Roth. We're a federal employment law firm. I'm a lobbyist for a bunch of different federal employee professional associations. And I've also had a lot of kind of wacky experiences through my through my job, particularly serving clients, including, you know, becoming the interim president of of those clients and really stepping into, unfamiliar situations. I think the things that I'd share as as my superpower and and part of how I navigate the world is, the concept of sense making. So, how do you process information, experiences, things that are going on in your own life and in your past? But I also apply that concept to trying to understand the political economy and what's going on around us in the world. I marry that up with, tapping into my network and, relying on, boundary spanning and and seeing if there's an area that is emergent that something hot is happening in that I need to know more about, who's a friend that I can call up and learn more about? So connecting the dots to get smarter from other people helps turn down kind of the anxiety of of what's going on around you to help settle kind of the understanding of what the way ahead might look like. And, also, if someone else has already thought about that problem so I don't have to reinvent 100% of that solution solutioning. I'll pause there. So smart, and thank you for being with us. I also just wanna remind you, if you wanna drop your superpower into the chat and share with us, feel free to do that. This is meant to be a community conversation, and you can follow any and all of the speakers at the top of the tab if you click on the little link that says speakers. Well, listen. As a proud army veteran myself, I am so incredibly excited to bring up our next speaker. We saved the best for last or one of the best anyway. Colonel Chris Sailing, who is an active duty commissioned officer and academy grad, renowned off offer, huge advocate for talent driven, or I should say data driven talent management and how you inform that. But just an overall wonderful advocate for positive workforce culture and driving results in any mission. So, Chris, happy to have you with us. No. Thank you, Mika, so much for letting me join this amazing lineup, and thank you for setting the bar really, really high. Now I really have to make sure I'm entertaining. Now as I'm really happy to be here and talk about some of my favorite subjects. I mean, we're gonna talk a little bit about how data driven talent management feeds into the pivot, And I've experienced a lot of those pivots just within the army over the course of twenty four years of service, starting out as a as a combat engineer turning into an operations research analyst and having found myself in the weird position of living around the army personnel space for the last nine years trying to affect change. So I think is in terms of superpowers, I've wished for many over the years. I think invisibility is one, force fields are another. Everybody loves innovation but hates innovators. They all want us to go away and stop disturbing their apple cart. But I think, really, the biggest superpower I've developed and my team has developed out of this is the ability to not thrive in chaos, but we're comfortable in it. We're used to it. And we can be optimistic about it. We look at it, and we find the opportunities. Because every time there's a disruption, that means our great big wonderful bureaucracy is shaken up a little bit, and we earn a little bit more wiggle room. So being able to kind of find those opportunities to drive positive change within disruption, I think counts as, counts as a superpower. I did too, my friend. Thank you for sharing that. And I love that we're seeing more superpowers getting dropped into the chat from our participants as well. And, Chris, while I have you, I wanna sort of go into our conversation talking about, you know, unexpected pivots, whether personal or professional. And just from your own experience serving in the United States military, you've had to not only prepare yourself when, you know, the army says, Hey, you're gonna pick up and go, or We want you in this new position. And, you know, maybe you weren't expecting it, maybe it has to happen really quickly. You have to prepare yourself, but you also have to prepare your loved ones, your family members, your children for what that looks like. And I feel like some of the changes that our federal friends, our public servants, government workers are experiencing right now are so unexpected and, really just aren't regular. They're unprecedented. I wonder if we could borrow some tools from your toolkit to share. So I think the biggest one I've learned, and this is not necessarily from some of the in army pivots, but thinking about the biggest one we make is transitioning from army to veterans. A lot of what we do on that space that I've kind of taken and tried to bring into my teams as we're moving around, as we're shifting work, is identity, is looking at who we are as a person, who we are, and it's not our job. It might be the work we're passionate about. It's definitely our family. It's our friendships. It's our relationships. It's the impact we wanna drive. There's so many other ingredients that we put into our identity that aren't just the job. That helps, I think, kind of peel back from that kind of sense of validation we get from the job more so in the work. In the work, the ideas, the thoughts, or things that we can take with us and that we can impart to others. So I think being able to construct your identity in a way where you find value in the work that's been done, in the work you can do in the future, in the relationships you've built with people all over the place, the connection theme that you were talking about in the beginning, I think, is hugely important. Pull of those things into yourself and your identity, and it's not just the label of the job or the job series or anything else that you're looking at. Yeah. It gives the power back too because, you know, your expertise, your intellectual property, what you bring to any organization, your values, you know, very service driven for public servants, military members. And that goes with you where regardless of what job title you hold, what company or organization you go to. So really good reminders. Thank you, Chris, for that. Deidra, so as as a leadership coach, a career coach, you know, I'd love to get your insights in terms of navigating these organizational changes, you know, agency restructuring. Your job may be changed or maybe even eliminated, sadly. What what are some of the first steps that someone should take when they realize they need to pivot or an unexpected change to their livelihood, you know, their routine, their career is coming about either for the next step in a career, private industry, or maybe even business ownership? Wow. So I like to lean in on my, my transformational empathy and help others do that. So my first advice some of the first steps are find your path. And and so and I'll explain that in a second. But many government people I know are probably feeling like they are, you know, at a crossroads in their career, wondering what's next, feeling uncertain, or just not feeling, I don't want them to feel alone. And so they may feel stuck. Maybe some people may be excited about some changes, or they may be able to do some things that they weren't able to do before. So path, finding your path. There's a framework, and I love acronyms. I'm such the acronym person. I think it was my time in government love and alphabet soup just helps me, remember some things. So path, which is pause with compassion. And all that means is, you know, give yourself permission to feel all the feelings, what's happening, without pressure to fix it all at once. You can't do it all at once. A is align with what matters. Take time to remember what energizes you, what lights you up, what gets you out of bed, what excites you, what are your core values, as well as what are some of those things that may be zapping your energy because those are things you wanna stay away from. And then the t, take inspired action. You don't need a 10 step plan, just the next right step. So progress over perfection is definitely important during these times. And then the h is honor the becoming. Celebrate the journey. You're not starting from scratch. You're starting from experience. So lean into that experience. Leverage everything that you've gone through. I remember being in government feeling like, all these things that I'm doing are preparing me, and I'm practicing for my business. And so whatever it was, I would channel that energy, into, okay, what how does this benefit me? And there were some times when I I dimmed my light, so others could shine. And so now I let my superpower help me to shine some bright some brightness into some dark places. So my last piece of advice is to keep shining. Keep shining. Don't dim your light. Find ways to ignite your passion. Yeah. I love that acronym. That is very powerful. And I know you put some resources in the docs too for folks to check out. So remember, in the docs tab, you'll find a lot of resources from all our friends on the conversation today. Jason, you know, in the beginning, we were talking about superpowers and and connectors and networking too and all of those things. And, again, one of one of the superpowers I would attribute to you is your is your network as well. And so networking is often attributed for a successful pivot. Right? When you're whether it's a new career or maybe you're, I don't know, even considering a different path, a different industry. Can you share some strategies, maybe, that has worked for you? I mean, you were outside of government, but you are, like, embedded more so than some of us. And so what strategies would you suggest or resources or associations could you recommend in terms of strengthening government networks also outside of government for those, that might be looking for support through a career transition? Yeah. Absolutely. So believe it or not, I am an introvert. I don't actually get energy from networking or being out there talking in front of large groups. I've gotten comfortable, and I've gotten good at those things through experience. But, you know, I get energy from, like, helping people and make feeling like I'm making some kind of difference in the world, whatever that looks like. And so for me, it's always been because I've represented groups of federal employees, I needed to know them. I needed to actually know people who were living this so that I could give voice to to their stories. So I think it's being interested, being open, trying to learn, and then and then being honest in your interest in learning. And and for me, like, that's really the main part of the ingredients is just, like, showing up, being being interested, being present, being honest, kinda leading with your heart, and then, like, figuring it out from there. You know? Again, my job is to give voice to the issues that various groups of federal employees are facing and trying to advocate for policies to help them do their job better. I can't do that if I don't know, what matters to them, because otherwise, it's just like a bunch of policies on paper. If it's not motivating them, like, it sure as heck isn't ain't gonna motivate me. And so I always needed to connect those two things together. And I've and I'd say you can also apply the same philosophy and approach toward engaging in the world, like, out online. You know? Like, I'm very out there on LinkedIn and, you know, use technology to get my own ideas out there, but but, honestly, to find people who are experts about stuff and to learn from them because they're sharing out there, and it's in the public domain. And, eventually, like, with people on this call, like, I met Chris online several years ago, and then we've met at some point at a conference, and we're friends in real life now. And so you can you can work it and build those connections over time. I I love that. Like, be curious, actively curious. How has it paid off for you, Jason? Like, how do you see it paying is it paid back to you in some ways? Like, even personally when you're thinking about something that you may need or want or like you said, even if it's insights from experts across your area. I mean, it makes me smarter because I'm closer to the information. So so you're putting yourself you're upgrading yourself by connecting yourself to people who who who know more than you, and then you can tap into that. And especially in DC, like, knowledge is power. Right? Knowing stuff and knowing people are really important. Yeah. And so that's also knowing how you can be valuable, you know, in the ecosystem or in your role. Like, for me, a lot of times it's just I know who to call. Yeah. And I can save you two weeks of scrambling around otherwise. And then maybe, hopefully, it'll help me find a job on the other side in the future or other work, and that stuff will come. But but, again, I think that's the how do people know you. Yeah. I think you can also apply it internally. Right? Like, our our new political appointees, our policymakers at the moment who are trying to implement rapid change, you know, at being actively curious and actively listening and applying all the the insights that our speakers so far have given us could could really serve you well to understand how is this impacting our even our our workforce on the inside. Okay, Jenny. So we're gonna talk about the pivots, and you've had many. My bad. I have. I like to pivot, actually. Yeah. I have watched you and, you know, sort of modeled some of my career pivots after yours. Out of uniform, in government, out of government, in industry, business owners, all the things because I like it. But what are some signs for you personally that might be an indicator that it is time to make a change, maybe even when you might not have been ready for it? How can one prepare? You know, any insights just personally from your perspective? Would love to hear those. Yeah. And I think that's that's right. Like, even even when you're not ready, sometimes pivots are handed to you. Right? And I've certainly been in government where it was, you know, it was time for me to come out before I felt like I was done with what I was working on, that I hadn't necessarily achieved what it was I wanted to do, but it was time to step out and try something else. And so I think part of that is being, you know as Chris said, you've gotta be sort of okay with the unknown and the chaos a little bit and the the challenge that comes with it. But I think too being able to say it's okay to not be finished because you'll never be finished with your work. And so so being able that's how when I was able to say that and really believe that it's okay to step out, you know you can pivot that way. Sometimes you don't know you need to pivot until you make the pivot, and then you can look back and say, That was actually ended up being a really good move in my career too. So so I think part of it is just I've tended to just go through doors that open instead of being maybe as intentional about pivoting as I should. So for folks who aren't thinking intentionally, that's okay too. Right? Like, sometimes it's okay to go with what's handed to you. And I'll also say talking to people too. Right? Jason's talked about networking. I mentioned that as a superpower. I don't wait till I need to make a pivot to network. I tend to try to keep on top of relationships with people. It's not, I think, a lot of people hear networking and think, like, standing in a corner at some weird event, handing out a business card, and that's awkward. Right? And that's not what networking has to be. It doesn't have to be that transactional. It might be like Jason and I are constantly sending articles to each other because we're like, hey. You might be interested in this, or, hey. You talked about that. Right? Like, it's not you know? And I have other friends where I see something, I haven't talked to them in a while, and I say, hey. This made me think of you. Or, like, hey. I heard of an opportunity. And that comes back because then they think about me too when they're thinking about things. And so so I think, you know, and and people are then good about helping you think about when it's time to pivot because I've a lot of my pivots have come when somebody has said, hey. I saw this opportunity. You may not be thinking about it, but I thought of you. You really should consider it. And but unless people know you're out there and know what you're up to, they're not able to help you think about that intentional that time when it is time to pivot and help you sort of make that bridge and take that step. That is so true. One of the OGs of federal service, mister Ron Sanders told me one time a long, long time ago. He said, you'll know that you have kind of made it in your career when people start inviting you to apply to positions. I can't get to you, of course, but, like, thinking of you, keeping you in mind for these opportunities. And he was so right at the end of my federal career. Like, I had people inviting me to come look at this opportunity, even in private industry, and it really does make a difference. Jenny, one thing while I still have you, I I wanna sort of hone in on and get your thoughts around is some of these pivots, though, could be particularly hard to navigate when you might not be an expert in things like retirement, impacts to your benefits. What am I giving up if I walk right now or take a fork in the road or a VERA or a VSIP versus stay and tough it out in this environment, which for some may not be so, such a good positive experience, and and maybe it is. But where can people go for help? I mean, things are changing so rapidly. Where can they go for help to understand the technical impacts to some of these pivots, especially for feds? Right. That's a great question. And and let's be real. At the end of the day, we're all people who have bills to pay and families to take care of or houses and more right. Like, so they're even when we can say, hey. It's exciting to pivot, some real logistics that go along with pivoting and making those moves that you have to like, you just have to deal with. And so I think for feds, the good thing is, despite all of the chaos going on, there are so many resources that I found out there. I know we put a few in the docs chat because, like, partnership for public service has webinars where we partnered with, national active and retired federal employees to bring on a federal benefits expert. We've got a ton of other webinars. There are also, you know, civil service strong. There's all the unions. There are so many organizations out there putting out resources, and so I would certainly encourage folks to to look for those and be intentional. But, you know, there are also coaches. I came across on LinkedIn the other day something called the coaching collaborative, where a whole bunch of coaches have kind of stood up to offer their services to help bed. So, like so coaches can help you think through what are those questions that you need to ask to be intentional, not just about your skills, but about what is it you need in order to make a pivot because you also have to think about what's the salary you need. What and these are things we don't always think about in federal service because of the grade levels and the steps and the other things. It's you don't have to negotiate that. You do in the private sector. And so making sure you've got a coach or what I call a kitchen cabinet of mentors, people I've collected over the years who support me and can help me think through what those things are, that's really important. Oh, so true. And so people are asking about the documents and resources. Please make sure to know that they're in there now. I think Michelle can weigh in later on at the end and let us know if that will be, provided later. But this really resonates for me because when I left the federal government to join private industry after twenty years of service, I just I thought I knew so much. I worked with a financial advisor even who understood federal retirement. Like, what is this gonna mean? Because I didn't have the years of service to retire. And I I didn't know to, like, negotiate. I thought a salary increase just happened magically every year because of the step increases or or cost of living increases. I didn't know to ask things like, are the benefits package plans that you have right now the same that are next year, or could they be negotiated and changed? And as a single mom, that's incredibly important for me because I am the breadwinner and provider. So it is important to also lean on your board of advisors across the network. Thank you so much, everyone. We're gonna move into our next topic around, workforce agility, building resilience, and also continuing to leverage those networks and and tips and tools. Chris, I want to, bring you up to chat about a little bit from a high level perspective in terms of your perspectives from the army's approach maybe to talent management, how that's evolved with the integration of using data and helping to overcome some of the personnel changes that might arise, whether you're a first line supervisor or manager, or you're affecting policy and thinking long term, like, what would what could this mean as the government looks to cut costs and become more efficient and restructure its organizations? How can people be thinking through a data lens now, like, even a strategic perspective? Any thoughts or insights from your work? Yeah. So what what it comes down to is that having a data driven talent management system doesn't mean the data is making the decisions for you, but it's informed by all of that underlying data that you have by people. You you build in inherent flexibility and resilience into your system. And what I mean by that is if you think of, again, kind of continuing with the kitchen examples, bread is bread, noodles are noodles, pasta is pasta, but they all kinda have the same fundamentals. Right? You know, different amounts of flour, egg, and water. So if you're looking at how we categorize people right now, we kinda categorize them as, okay, your bread, your pasta, your pierogies, whatever you might be. With a, you know, at least in government service, there is a there's a signifier and a grade of what your career class is. And so we make a lot of assumptions as to what you do and what your skills are based on that. In the military side, it's grade and branch and seniority. We do put a lot of emphasis on seniority. We're trying to move away from that. But if you look at the underlying ingredients, if you look at you know, instead of the end product, but if you look at the amounts of, you know, flour, egg, and water that you have to mix together, you can make all of those different things. If we look at our people's skills that way too, we can look at, you know, what people are doing currently in their work, what other skills they're capable of, do skills based assessments. And then as work evolves, because we're seeing work evolve extremely rapidly right now with the integration of agentic AI, of copilots, of insert your favorite AI kind of buzzword tool. With that technology training, it's it's or, rapidly transforming. It's not necessarily taking away jobs, but it is transforming the work. So the work is evolving. So the skills are gonna need to evolve. And if we have that kind of underlying depth of understanding of attributes in terms of skills, we can make more pivots. We just give people more options rather than kind of the static career path a lot of us were brought up with saying, okay. You're gonna do this step, this step, this step instead. It looks a lot more like a a massive trail system on a map. You've got a lot of different ways to get to your destination, or you've got the ability to look at even more destinations as they evolve. I love that. I imagine that those skills also can translate into your own professional and personal pivots. Right? Like, if you have the skill to look at the landscape of workforce trends and data insights and what's going on, it can help you make a a more informed decision in terms of what industry you might wanna pursue. Or maybe even I was thinking leveraging, you know, personal assessments in terms of what your next pivot or career step might be personally. So both while you're in your career now, but also for potential pivots later. I I really and you all have invested a lot in in creating data literacy skills across your teams, haven't you? We have. We have. Over the past about five years, we've developed and scaled our data one zero one courses, and we now have three different levels on top of that. General Beagle out at the combined arms center who runs all of our professional military education jumped on that very early. He mandated that data training be integrated in all of our professional military education. So we're getting that skill out there to make people more critical consumers of data. The other thing we're trying to do is we're trying to provide more tools that allow people to own and contextualize their data. So as you do assessments, as you look at opportunities, we're rolling out interactive career mapping tools where people can look and say, here's what I'm doing currently. Here's kinda where I wanna do go. What are the gaps? What are my strengths? What kind of opportunities are open to me that I might not have considered otherwise? So I can see something out there that I never thought existed, let alone that I would actually be good at and, you know, kind of move in that direction. To, the point on career coaching also, that, that's something that we're making available for people to share with their mentors, with coaches, with trusted advisers to say, hey. Look. This is kind of what options are out there. Can you give me a little more experience from your end on what things you think I should pursue? What kind of opportunities that might not be immediately visible in the data that they can use to kind of make that whole package, informed decision. Mhmm. I love that. Amen. Alright. And I wanna add actually, I'm gonna invite Deidra to add on to that. In terms of when we're thinking about it from a personal level when making pivots or thinking about how we can continue to develop some key skills while maybe influx around uncertainty. Are we staying? Are we going? Maybe we haven't decided just yet. But, you know, what kind of key strategies might people be thinking about for their careers, adding new skills, putting together, you know, a toolkit for them to think about their next step? Even if it's another ten or fifteen years from now, but especially in times of organizational change and uncertainty, just in case. Plan for the worst. Hope for the best. Wow, Mika. You're taking me back because, when I developed my business, I was in the government, and it was during a time that was kind of, I'd I'd say my lower points in government was when I thought about what can I do? How can I benefit from what I'm going through? Because I believe that if you're going through something, hopefully, you're going to learn something from that so that it wasn't, you know, in vain. So, definitely, there's so many skills that you can jump into. Active listening is definitely something. Making sure you're not listening you're listening with intention. You're listening to other people, but you're listening to yourself. And what are you what are you thinking? Find out what your passion is and let that drive you in the direction that you need to go in. We all have things that we really, really enjoy doing, and so how can I turn that into my my current job or my current job search so that I'm going toward my passion and my purpose? And that's those are some of the things that I've done, having a really strong self awareness. So I'm really big on emotional intelligence. And I feel like you can't lead other people if you're not aware of what's leading you. So you have to find out what is driving you, before you can help other people. So there's so many skills. We heard coaching. Definitely, that's about empowering other people, letting them discover what's within them, but finding out. And, really, this is time for a lot of reflection and and and really understanding what this pivot is teaching me. What am I learning? What do I need to learn? How do I move forward? So there's I we can talk on and on and on, about the strategies. I'm not sure if that is where you wanted me to go. I think that's key. Yeah. Yeah. Those are some key strategies to hone in on. And if we're off base or if you wanna explore more, drop in the q and a, and we will have time at the end for our experts to answer some of your personalized questions too, so don't forget that. I before I jump over to Jenny and then Jason again, I wanna remind you that we're also having a networking reception for those of you in the DC area. I'm sorry, Hawaii. We can't come to you yet yet. But for those of you that are in the DC area, Deidra will be there, Colonel Stanley will be there, I will be there, Michelle will be there, next time Jenny and Jason will join us. But if you'd like to come out for some community networking tonight, remember that we have the networking reception at City Club DC as well. So, Jenny, let's talk a little bit more about that networking. You know, I don't wanna say there's a right way and a wrong way when maybe you're using your network to help source find and look for opportunities maybe down the line as it relates to career or jobs, but there could be a, maybe a good, better, best, especially when you're asking people to give their time to you and help point you in the direction, maybe make a connection. Any suggestions, advice, guidance for people that may want to think about leveraging their network for the purpose of of finding other opportunities? Yeah. I'll I'll jump into that by bumping off of something that we were just talking about with skills, is that so many people that I run across in government, but also private sector, but particularly government, sort of think of themselves as, in some ways, technical experts. Right? I mean, I'm a contracting officer, or I'm a data scientist, or I'm a but, you know, that's that's not exactly what you are because there are all these soft skills. And so I think people people forget that they have they can do strategic thinking. They can do, you know, emotional intelligence. They have all these other skills that help them do their technical job but also are applicable to so many other jobs. And so, right, I like the human skills, Jason. But also even your technical skills. Just because you're a data scientist, there are a ton of fields where you could use data in and leverage it for other things. And so one of the things when you're thinking about networking is don't pigeonhole yourself into only trying to find networks in your technical space. Think about some of these other skills. Think about like, you have to break down your skills into what is that actually what are the things I do in my job? Maybe it's bringing people together in meetings. Maybe I'm really good at negotiating to an outcome or understanding the people's equity so we can move towards, solution. So I think part why I say that is help think about that and then think about networking more broadly is, like, finding people that can help you connect where those skills that you have, not just the technical ones, might be used to other places. And so so part of the the trick with networking is just going and having informational coffees. You'd be surprised how frequently people say yes to giving their time. Like, people really do like to help other people think about it because you're not asking them to do anything other than have coffee. You're not going to say, can you do x, y, and z for me? It's, hey. Can you can you talk to me about your industry, or can you provide some advice about how I can get my foot in the door or think about this? And so so I think part of this is is think broadly about your network and just go have virtual coffees or in person coffees with people. I know having coffees is a whole different not everybody does that, but it is a great way to think about just informational coffees that are low low pressure for you and low pressure for the person you're talking to. And most of the time, people will say yes. Final tip, always ask them at the end who else you should talk to because most people will either open up their virtual Rolodex, so to speak, for those of you who ever had a Rolodex. I did back in the day. But, like, you know, they'll open up their virtual Rolodex and say, hey. I can connect you to this person, or, hey. You should go look at this company. So make sure to ask that question. Such great tips, and I am all about coffee. So anytime, my friends. I will say to add on to some of the tips you gave, Jenny, you know, there I have seen people when they do reach out with a specific ask, because sometimes it is. Sometimes it might be, hey, Deidra. I see you're connected with Meta and Google, and I'm interested in this kind of position. Could you help connect me? What's even better is when someone might send a copy of their updated resume, a specific link to the jobs that they're interested in, and with a canned intro that Diedra could use to make that connection so that it's easier for her to help you. Think about the tax on other people's time, and, also, they may not have the full context in terms of why you're interested in that role, how it how you are set apart from other candidates. If you help them help you, it can, lead to a greater outcome. Just wanna share that as well. Awesome tips, Jenny, and we are overview for our virtual coffee or together coffee, in real life coffee, or maybe even happy hour. So, Jason, as we're talking about pivoting, making really hard decisions, but important ones, you know, especially for those in the federal workforce right now, they are getting reinvested with all of these executive orders, legal changes, policy changes, workforce changes, employment status changes. You know? We're we're laying off. We're put bringing you back. We're shutting down. We're not. We're keeping it open. This is really complex to navigate when you are facing personal and professional decision making too. Where can people keep up to date, do you think? Like, the average Mika. Where can I go to keep up to date? Are there associations? I know you lead, a policy update committee for the senior executives association, and SEA is actually open to even is it GS 12 and thirteens now? You might not know that, but I think it is. Right. Where can people go just to keep up to date? Because it seems like it's changing by the minute. Yeah. I mean, in all honesty, this is something I think many of our organizations are struggling with in terms of there's a flood of information and resources out there, but people has and all that. So there I think the the best time and one stop shop resources that are out there are probably what Jenny and her team at the partnership have put together, the civil service strong, website, and if you can keep it website from protect democracy. Those are some of the more comprehensive ones. Groups like the senior executives association and other professional groups within the government are are honestly kinda trying to keep our pulse on those types of resources and blogs and stuff that are coming out with things like analysis about what the latest risk guidance or this or that executive order means for you. And, you know, let's be honest. Like, federal employees don't understand their rights on a normal day, and they and they don't understand them on on these days, and that makes it harder for folks. But I do think that it is feasible to understand the various blast radiuses and, like, where you might fall. And and whether you are someone who's already effect been, affected by some of these actions or if maybe your time is gonna come later in the year. I do think figuring that out is feasible. And and and, you know, some of it is, are you in a policy related role? You know? Or are you doing things that are are required as a matter of law or, you know, or or or anything like that? You know that maybe you'll have some more time to try to to justify your existence in whatever crazy, Kafka like way you were forced to do so. I think the flip side of all this is, like, stop doom scrolling. Turn off the Internet. Go outside. Go for a walk. Go get a drink with other people. Go for a meal with your friends or your family. You know? At the end of the day, there is only so much that you can control. And I think even for senior leaders, they are being given orders that they are following without really a plan underneath of them. It's on them to figure out the plan for how to do the things that they're being asked to do. But, like, you know, we don't know what's coming tomorrow. Although you can guess. It's been talked about for several years. But, like you know? So just try to take it one step at a time. Things that are outside of your control are outside of your control. I you know, I don't know how you draw a limit on where your brain goes at night, but, like, I don't know. I find ways to turn it off. I think having an accountability partner is helpful too, like, our friend group. You know? Like, okay. Let's switch the conversation. Let's focus on something else. Here's a funny meme even. There's science behind fun humor and laughter. There is. They're all really good tips. And please, please, please do share your resources, your, your associations, your employee groups, and share this recording with them too if it's helpful. So I'm going to do a quick lightning round with everyone before we wrap up. I we do have a question, though, that's coming into q and a, so I'm gonna stop and I am going to let one of you answer this or or more if you like. Did any one of you experience self doubt in your early career? And if so, for some reason, I can only see let's see. If so oh, how did you overcome it? Would anyone like to take that first? Raise your hand quick. Go. Deidra. Absolutely. I think I think if you're growing and learning, you're always gonna experience some level of self doubt. But that's that friction between self doubt and and success and accomplishment is where you're growing and where you're learning the most. So I feel like, there was self doubt throughout my entire career. When I went from one grade to another, there was like, okay. What does that mean for me? And my biggest self doubt was when I left the government, and I took my giant leap in 2018 because I had been I was used to getting a paycheck every two weeks, and now I have to provide that paycheck. And so that was huge for me, and that was you know, it took it was a process. And so I say give yourself grace as you're going through, but you are you know, what you're feeling is normal. Whatever you're feeling is normal. Feel it and and figure out, okay. How do I get past this? So use it as, a tool to move through what you're going through. And and but self doubt is a part of growing. Mhmm. I think so too. There is nothing scarier than leaving the cushy federal government, to be honest. I mean, after two decades. Okay? So it's a long time. You get you know, even though I worked in different agencies, leaving the military, it was scary. Starting a new business was scary. Having all your clients be put on pause with quick contracting and purchase orders is Scary. Scary right now. But there is a really great quote actually, and it was requoted by Maria Roat when she was federal CIO. And she says, there is no growth in your comfort zone, and there is no comfort in your growth zone. And I always fall back on that quote. So I'm so thankful for Maria for paying it forward and and sharing that. Okay. Thank you for that question, by the way. So we are in our final ten minutes. We're gonna wrap up. I would like to focus on something that we heard from in our first webinar of this series, and it was around experiencing and navigating grief. And so we are hearing from some of our federal friends this dynamic of what's called survivor guilt, where some members of your team or if you're a leader or manager, you have to do these really hard layoffs. And by the way, they happen in private industry too because that was one of my first assignments when I took the vice president role at FlexJobs was to do massive layoffs, and it was like I had to execute this. It really does put a mental strain on you. But also for team members, for yourself personally, Any advice, I'm throwing at this new question to you all, just in terms of how we can foster a supportive and empathetic culture for those who stay behind and those who have to leave. Any thoughts? Raise your hand and come off mute. Chris? Well, I I think for a lot of us, our our first impulse is to help, and I think we find our opportunities to do that where we're not just cutting somebody loose, where we're looking at, hey. I took a look at your resume that you applied with. We can make some updates. I got a recommendation of something you can add here. Can I use my network? I'll write you a letter of recommendation. How how can I help this transition? That and I'm I'm really interested in hearing what Deidre says about this because I love the idea of transformational empathy. Just coming in and, you know, this this is a person. This is not a number. This is a person with goals, ambitions, with, with opportunities. And I think the more we can kind of focus again, kind of looking at the chaos, finding the opportunity, and telling them, yeah, this thing is happening. You have permission to feel all the feelings. It's it's not fair. You didn't necessarily do anything, especially right now because there's there's not a lot of transparency in how things are happening. But we have the ability to kind of go in there and say, you know, this is your path was disrupted. I'm gonna try to show you as many other paths as I possibly can and be a resource during this time. I love that advice. Deidra, Jenny, Jason, any advice from your perspectives? I'll share another acronym. I'll make it really quick, because transformational empathy is my superpower, and I practice true. So tune in, which is deep listening, awareness of emotions and energy and shifts. This is in other people. So tuning in, reflect with intention, which, encourages thoughtful pause before you react. So thinking about what you're saying before you say it, and see how it may land. Reflect on values and purpose. And then u, uplift possibility. You have to help people to re refrain change as an opportunity and speak hope into uncertainty. And then e, empower forward movement, which is equipping others with t with tools, language, and confidence to act. And so the practicing true will help you with helping others go forward, but you're doing it with some intentionality. I love all these acronyms. You're the acronym queen to come up with. I know. I'm gonna take her acronyms. I so am. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. Can I throw a a more because I love what both Deidra and Chris said, and I wanna throw a more logistical one because I've been through staying behind in rifts and other things is that while you're going through this emotional piece, wanting to support people, wanting to help, you are also left behind still having to do all the work? Yeah. Right? Like, the mission didn't change along with people being riffed or people being let go. And so part of that, I was talking to somebody yesterday, and one of the things their senior executive did was was help the team think through. There are going to be things we don't we just can't do. We're going to have to prioritize differently because I think the stress too of being left behind and trying to figure out, oh my am I gonna have to work fifteen hour days to cover four people's jobs that left? Like, that's hard. And so as a leader, helping your team both make sure they understand what they need to do and get done and make sure you can prioritize and take things off people's plates where possible, not always possible, but where it is and really being intentional about that piece so that people don't also feel the stress of work while they're feeling feeling the emotional impact of seeing colleagues go out the door. And so so I just wanted to throw that logistical piece out there as well. Very practical advice too for those left behind. You know, I saw one thing I just wanna share to. A friend of mine, a federal friend shared with me. It almost made me cry. It was this little slide, one slide that the team gave to everybody that was laid off, and it said the 10 things we'll miss about you. And people wrote, like, you know, you're a funny laugh or you're always helping us and, you know, all these things. And then they added, like, their purse if they wanted to, their personal email for them to stay in touch. It was the sweetest thing. So there are ways that you can lean in and just appreciate people's experience, listen actively, lean in. Jason, any final thoughts before we kick it back over to Michelle to close us out? I don't have anything as good or pithy. I always waited too long. But I think on the flip side, I go back to some of what I said earlier. It's like, you know, showing up with empathy and a heart, but at the same time, like, you can't burden yourself so much by putting everyone else's weight on your shoulders. So figuring out that balance as a leader and a manager, you know, it's like, hey. Like, this all sucks, but, like, for those who are still here, like, we still got a job to do. And and maybe we're it's not all gonna get done. And guess what? Our leaders need to figure out what isn't gonna get done, and they need to set priorities. It's not up to us to figure out the priorities. That ain't our job anymore, especially in this environment. And I think that's what a leader can do. I think that's really important is to reprioritize. And sometimes that means self prioritization, but also, like you said, leaning on your leaders and managers to help set the course. Listen. I wanna say thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for interacting. Thank you for your questions. Thank you for dropping your superpowers in the chat and spending the last hour with us as a community. We look forward to continuing these conversations with Cornerstone and the team. Our next one actually is on April 29. And tonight, if you can join us, come out for a networking reception. It's going to be super chill and all about the people. Thank you to each and every one of you for joining us. Jenny, Deidra, Chris, and Jason. Thank you so much for your insights and guidance and for spending time with us and imparting your wisdom, sharing the resources and the documents. Make sure to go there because there's even some special offers for conferences and events that you can tune into as well. With that, I am going to kick it back over to Michelle Clark and say thank you again, Michelle, and to you and the Cornerstone team for hosting us. Thank you. And I wanna I think everybody in the chat is is donning their claps and their their love for the the panelists. Thank you so much for your time today. And like Mika said, I think she said everything I was gonna say, but that's fine. Our next webinar is April 29, and please, please, please join us. We're gonna celebrate you on Public Service Recognition Week on May 8 at the City Club of DC. Additionally, I got a lot of feedback, from friends and and wanting to know what what can we bring to you? What topics can we, bring, moving forward in person or in this in this, venue? I got some great feedback that this is a great session. We're we're here for you, and we wanna keep bringing you these type of, of programs that will help you get through, as Mika said, all of the chaos and and helping you pivot. So thank you and have a great afternoon. Bye bye.