The Power of Please and Thank You

How Soft Skills and Mindset Give Prospective Employees the Winning Edge in the Journey to Meaningful Employment

Presented by Steve Bell,CPRPOwner/Practitioner of Alegria Mental Health

You Can Improve Your Mental Health With a Four Letter Word:

W O R K

Many People with Psychiatric Disabilities Recover and Return to the World of Work: Meet Bruce Goldstein• Bruce has bipolar disorder• He lost his career as a designer in New York City due to

recurring manic and depressive episodes. • His girlfriend left him. He became a recluse in his apartment,

lonely and unemployable. • Yet with help from his psychiatrist, his family and a black

Labrador retriever named Ozzie, Bruce found his own pathway to recovery.

• Ozzie gave him a reason to get up in the morning. His new pet needed care and attention and that was part of the healing process for Bruce.

Bruce wrote a book about his experiences called “Puppy Chow is Better Than Prozac”He is back in the workforce as a commercial artist for some of the most respected and successful advertising firms in New York. His life story is one of many examples of how a person with a psychiatric disability can experience a fulfilling life once their recovery journey gets into gear.Recovery and Work go hand in hand.

My Recovery Story

Before I became disabled, I ran a small business, was active in the chamber of commerce, and an elder in a church in California. Then in 2000 (or thereabouts) I was correctly diagnosed with what some people may call an invisible disability. It has a name: a mood disorder. The depression and other symptoms nearly wiped out my marriage, reputation and physical health. It did destroy my finances and almost put my family on the street and I could only get low-paid, on-commission employment in sales. We had to go to food banks for holiday meals and were forced to get food stamps. Except for Medicaid for our children, we had no health insurance.

Having a cup of coffee at Denny’s and reading the Gazette newspaper were my only luxuries. Ironically, it was being laid off from a great job in California that triggered and escalated mental health problems that left me depressed, unable to concentrate or sleep, and then have huge problems with anger, paranoia and fear. From 1996 until 2001 you might say Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde lived at my house. He was sad and unpredictable. But his real name was Steve..

In 2001 I began treatment with a knowledgeable psychiatrist and I saw a therapist who specializes in mood disorders for over a year. I also found much needed peer support, education and friendship from members and leaders of the Colorado Springs chapter of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA). During this process, a renewed faith in Jesus Christ, a very caring, patient and loving wife and starting a new job that provided a good paycheck and healthcare benefits gave me purpose and hope.

What Do Job Seekers with Disabilities Have in Common with Other People? Everything.Many of us have college degrees, learned a variety of work skills while in military

service, or are certified in a specific trade or profession. Some of us have started or run successful businesses.

Some of us are very good with numbers and using accounting software, working for small businesses in real estate, insurance and manufacturing.

Some of us know how to engage and communicate with children and teens, prepare lesson plans and measure student progress in a public or private school classroom.

Some of have worked in a customer contact center and have expertise in providing an excellent sales or service experience on the telephone.

These Are All Examples of What are Called Hard Skills

I’m educated & skilled in my chosen career field. I am still unemployed? What’s Missing?

Here’s the Soft Answer.

The bullet points on this page and the one that follows is from the blog, Soft Skills: Ask a Wharton MBA by Lei Han.

• Forbes in one of its research on jobs that everything ranging from your cover letter to your resume should appear as if you, the job seeker is interacting with the hiring manager. As such , interviews should feel more of a witty conversation, and this is possible if you have strong interpersonal and communication skills.• There is a difference between being talented and being employable. You can have

great technical skills and command over your project intricacies, but if you lack certain soft skills, such as ability to deal with difficult situations or personalities, then doing well at your job can be difficult. Let us analyze two key soft skills.

Soft Skills: More than Just Being a People Person

• Interpersonal Skills• This skill is everything when it comes to talking with other people. If you have good

interpersonal skills, then participating effectively as a member of a team becomes easy. Well-honed interactive abilities can result in smoother communication with clients and colleagues, leading to a better workplace environment.

• Communication Skills• Companies are always looking for those of you who have good writing and speaking

skills. For instance, it is not enough just to be book smart or have hard skills. Companies look for those of you who can build effectively relationships through both effective communication and interpersonal skills. Those of you who know how to get things done through working with others are the ones on the fast track for success.

To Accomplish Its goalsa successful enterprise needs team members who are effective collaboratorsWhether you are trying to help King Arthur find the Holy Grail (as in the Monty Python Comedy, circa 1975) or trying to secure an entry level position in our rapidly changing economy it is essential to be able to master skills such as: Caring about seeing the company succeed. Reliability Flexibility Personal Integrity Staying on the job until its finished. Commitment to continued training and

learning. Ability to relate to coworkers in a close

environment.

Let’s Examine the list on the previous slide a bit more closely• Even if your seeking transitional or survival employment, it pays to understand

the mission, history and values of the employer. If you practice this soft skill then you are doing your homework. Why should the company hire you, what can you do at work that will demonstrate you care about the success of the enterprise? Not hired yet? How did you convey this attitude during a job interview?• How well do you handle change, whether it be in the workload, schedule,

product offerings, new processes or rules of conduct? Flexible people get hired and recognized for their efforts. • In our Job Club, we expect our members to examine and celebrate both their

internal strengths (physical, emotional, thinking, social) and external strengths (past or present work experience, formal education, etc.) rather focus on their psychiatric diagnosis or treatment history.

Our Soft Skill and Mindset List (continued)• How do you define integrity? What does that look like in the workplace? Based on surveys and

interviews with thousands of employers and recruiters, James Reed, CEO of REED one of the largest recruiting and placement firms in the world and Paul G. Stoltz, PhD, founder of PEAK Learning and a leading expert on measuring and strengthening human resilience, explain in their book: “Put Your Mindset to Work” that employers look for people who are honest, loyal, trustworthy, ethical, moral and authentic. The authors write, “This GOOD mindset…is about seeing and approaching the world in a way that truly benefits those around you.”

• Work can be boring, exhausting, and even dangerous. One of my favorite TV reality shows is Deadliest Catch. Watching the crab fishermen on the Bering Sea struggle to meet their quotas each season demonstrates the soft skill of ‘staying on the job until the work is complete’. Their paychecks and the success of the crew, captain and boat depend on filling their tanks with crab and getting their product to market. Those who can’t persevere in a tough (but good paying) job will quit or be fired.

• NOTE: people with disabilities often have an edge in the perseverance department: We have to work very hard to do the tasks of daily living that other people take for granted.

Social Skills: Do you have a circle of support? Can you Network? Do people see you as kind

and courteous OR rude and disrespectful? Better mood stability, less anxiety, and/or finding ways to block out disturbing voices in one’s mind are all signs of what is called RECOVERY. To get this state • Improving social skills and creating a circle of friends and acquaintances is essential in networking.

This is a vital soft skill to learn since most job vacancies are filled because of personal connections and referrals from other people. Loneliness and lack of social support is often a by product of anxiety, mood and thought disorders. Therefore our company, Alegria (which means joyfulness in Spanish) provides intensive encouragement and instruction on how to go from a state of being a ‘loner’ to a successful networker.

• Employers do not need or want -employees who gossip, complain, refuse to be coached to improve in their required duties or are rude and disrespectful of their peers or management. People with disabilities want to be treated like any other potential or current employee. Though we may need reasonable accommodations in order to perform our assigned tasks, we are not exempt from the imperatives of courtesy and etiquette either on or off the job. Your productivity and technical prowess may give your resume a second look. Lack of soft skills or a winning mindset will probably not lead to an interview or a job offer.

Closing Thoughts• For people who are in recovery from a psychiatric disability, mastering soft skills and having a positive

and proactive mindset can at times be difficult. Our brains are wired differently. This can translate into being unable to make eye contact, needing to reminded more often about when to or how to complete specific tasks. Being irritable more often than others, displaying more energy at times and/or showing signs of a temporary shutdown in energy or motivation at work are some of the things we struggle with. Years of being told what we can and cannot do by well meaning ‘caregivers’ and health care providers often lead to very low self esteem. These manageable symptoms that come and go are not character flaws or evidence that we are incompetent or anti-social.

• My take on the importance of soft skills for employees and job seekers based on research, working with others who share a ‘storm in their brain’ and my own personal experience is that those who demonstrate progress in their recovery and are motivated to choose, get and keep work will have their good days and bad days on the job just like anyone else. People need and want to have a reason to get up in the morning. Meaningful work as well as a good paycheck are essential to good mental health.

• To quote John Lennon: “Work is life, you know and without it there’s nothing but fear and insecurity.”

Abraham Lincoln , politician and president had severe bouts of depression throughout his career. Nicola Tesla, inventor, demonstrated that electricity in the form of alternating current was the energy that would power the future. He was socially awkward and exhibited obsessive and compulsive behaviors. Jane Pauley, television presenter and journalist has bipolar disorder and writes about it her memoir, “Skywriting, A Life Out of the Blue”. When we hear these names we think of what they accomplished and the descriptions of their mental health problems are just footnotes or sidebars in their biographies

Alegria Mental Health Education. Life Skills Coaching. Job Search and Placement Assistance.

• If you are a person who has lived experience with a mental health issue and you want to find out how we may help you re-enter the world of work, please contact us ASAP.

• All consumers of mental health services are welcome. Please call or email us for information about upcoming classes in Colorado Springs.

• Call…719-492-9335 for an appointment.

• Leave a message. We will call you back within 48 hours.

Reasonable sliding scale fees for classes and one on one coaching.No charge if you are referred to us by a counselor from the Colorado Division of Vocational RehabilitationWe are also available for consultation and training on workforce development, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and financial incentives for hiring persons with disabilities.