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Happy New Year from The Talent Trade!
Talent Trade host Stephanie Maas closes out 2023 with a fun exercise in year-end gratitude, and a unique way to frame your professional accomplishments as the calendar rolls over to 2024.
Transcript
Happy new year.
Speaker:This is Stephanie Maas partner with Thinking Ahead, Executive Search, and welcome to The Talent Trade.
Speaker:Oh my goodness, can you believe we are launching into 2024?
Speaker:I don't know about y'all, but I know for me, 2023 went by like a blur.
Speaker:There were ups, there were certainly downs and everything else, which I think is just kind of par for the course now, but it went by so incredibly.
Speaker:Fast.
Speaker:So here we are on the cusp of a new year.
Speaker:I have mixed feelings about New Year's resolutions.
Speaker:I think that the spirit of them is incredible, but sometimes we put so much pressure on ourselves that we give up before we even get started.
Speaker:But one of my favorite traditions is to really spend time thinking about what was I thankful for in the last year?
Speaker:What did I learn from the last year and what do I hope for for the upcoming year?
Speaker:I also like to think about in the spirit of what do I hope for?
Speaker:What's my part?
Speaker:What can or do I need to be doing to really make those hopes and dreams come true?
Speaker:And I think about this personally as it relates to my family.
Speaker:I think about it from a search perspective.
Speaker:I'll share with you two things that I've done in the past that I love.
Speaker:I saw this one online somewhere, so I don't know who to give proper credit to, but basically they said, start a gratitude jar and put it somewhere super visible, put a stack of not quite sticky notes, but little, you know, square pieces of paper.
Speaker:And every time something good happens, write it on that note and put the date and put it in the jar.
Speaker:Do it for the entire year.
Speaker:And then on New Year's Eve, dump out the jar and read about all the amazing things that happened throughout the year.
Speaker:We actually did this last year.
Speaker:I knew it was going to be a challenging year for me and my family, so I wanted to do that.
Speaker:And it was so much fun reading those on New Year's Eve.
Speaker:It was amazing how much the kids had forgotten or how much they go, Oh my gosh, that was last year.
Speaker:It seems like it was ages ago.
Speaker:And it definitely sets the tone for trying to set up a proper next year at work.
Speaker:Some of the cool things I've done.
Speaker:Is you know, our firm is huge on stats and you know, we believe in managing the numbers and lead the people.
Speaker:I started setting goals in terms of not necessarily all my stats, but things like who can I bring along?
Speaker:How can I help develop X, Y or Z?
Speaker:You know, how many clients can I serve this year?
Speaker:or how many candidates can I help transition into a better situation and just started shifting how I thought about the job a little bit.
Speaker:Again, we still have to manage the numbers.
Speaker:They're still there, but I just did, I just did a little bit of a, of a mind shift and how I approached my work.
Speaker:And it was amazing how I just went into the year so much more relaxed and like, Hey, I'm here to serve.
Speaker:It's going to work out however it is.
Speaker:My job is to wake up every day.
Speaker:Get on the phone and try and find who I need to serve next.
Speaker:So with that being said, we here at the talent trade are super thankful for 2023, the introduction of this podcast and anyone who's ever given us a listen, whether it be for a minute or the entire podcast or whatever the case may be.
Speaker:So thank you for that.
Speaker:And we also share a commitment to 2024.
Speaker:And bringing you hopefully more hopeful content that makes you better at your desk and your craft and improves the executive search business as a whole.
Speaker:Here's to more in 24 happy new year.
