( ENSPIRE She Did That ) Janelle Reid Prepares Professionals on How to Navigate Their Career in a Post-Covid-19 World
ENSPIRE Contributor: Keegan Kerns
Janelle Reid has taken the time over her career to finding out what she truly values and enjoys, enabling her to go from working in the mortgage industry to owning her own business, Divine Career Solutions. Feeling stuck in her position in the mortgage industry, she attended Career Day events, looking for opportunities to find something more fulfilling. Here Janelle was exposed to the field of Human Resources, which she found attractive as she would learn about, understand, and help others with employment benefits and their career advancement. It wasn’t a straightforward decision to switch careers; after all, in this initial switch, she would take a pay cut to start at her new position, but Ms. Reid showed her strength and dedication, becoming a Global Executive VP of HR in the US and Canada.
Using the knowledge, she gained in her own career journey and her experiences as a Global Executive VP of HR, Ms. Reid could create her own company, Divine Career Solutions. With her expertise, she can identify career needs, provide strategy consulting, and guide individuals towards specific goals to maximize their value as workers while also working towards inclusive workplaces.
ENSPIRE Magazine interviewed Janelle Reid to ask about her career and work at Divine Career Solutions.
You’ve had your own career journey, working in the mortgage industry until finding work in Human Resources, eventually allowing you to create your own business with Divine Career Solutions. Is there a way to prepare yourself for such dramatic career shifts, and if so, how did you accomplish it?
Let go of feeling & being comfortable, which is sometimes masked in fear, and be intentional about pushing yourself to take risks. Highs & lows within careers & businesses are inevitable, but make yourself a lifetime learner so that you learn from every experience to continue to exude confidence in your abilities. The feeling of comfortability & familiarity initially paralyzed me from taking that leap into the new & unknown and even deterred me from shifting when I needed to. Every shift I’ve had in my career and even when I started my business, I was afraid to let go of being comfortable and shifting into a new space that was new territory but; it was my push to focus on what I was gaining versus what I thought I was losing. It brought what I learned from each experience to the new and next phase that gave me the confidence to shift.
Starting your own business is a difficult endeavor for anybody. So how were you able to find the courage and strength to create and transform Divine Career Solutions into what it is today?
Divine Career Solutions was a God idea that was birthed. I had no intentions of starting a business or leaving Corporate America. Corporate America was where I thrived and dominated in the boardroom. It was where I found validation, so the thought of leaving what became so comfortable to me was not just scary it was terrifying. My fear was having to start over from ground zero, but I learned it wasn’t starting over; it was living out what I learned and pivoting from being the team player to now being the coach. I transferred the same confidence, courage, strength & authority that I have in Corporate America to business ownership by remembering that my business is not about me; it’s about serving & empowering people by helping them identify their value & maximize it to deliver solutions. As a woman of faith, my faith in God allowed me to stop being afraid of success and being silent on the failures. As quiet as it’s kept, fear of success is very real in business ownership. It’s so important now more than even that we are more open and transparent about what we learn from the failures & mistakes and how did we grow from them.
With your new book, “Awakening Your Value Proposition: How To Be At Your Best to Deliver Solutions,” you’ve enabled a whole new group of people to have access to your methods for success. How would you define a value proposition for the individual employee, and how can they maximize their value proposition?
The value proposition uses your knowledge, skills & abilities to create harmony and solutions & how you do it uniquely well. Employees can maximize their value proposition by first offering & inviting feedback. Giving yourself the gift of feedback is a great opportunity to exchange thoughts, ideas & most importantly, to learn. Secondly, create opportunities for others to shine, be the one who can look for ways to allow others to showcase their talent. Lastly, help to build bridges that unify. The pandemic has changed the world and, in the process, has made some organizations & businesses disjointed in the journey of understanding the new norm of what going to work will look like. Be the one to help create unity & harmony across the organizations.
You’ve also talked about strategies for self-management and methods to improve your job interview skills. What tips or tricks do you have for people to succeed in their next job interview or increase their own success through better self-management?
To be successful in your next job interview, promotion, or even transition from Corporate America to business ownership, it is so important that you understand the language of value. When you write your resume & even when you are interviewing for a job, it’s not about you. It’s about the exchange of value. Be prepared for rejection and allow it to sharpen you so that you stay ready for the right opportunity. Interviews are a two-way street, your future employer is interviewing you, but you should also be interviewing them as well. Connect with your future employer, don’t just simply communicate or regurgitate what’s in your resume and be intentional on the questions you ask during the interview; it shows how you think. And lastly, always be your authentic self.
You speak to the importance a disciplined thought life can have in connection to one’s success. For those who are unaware, could you speak to this concept of a thought life further and how it can maximize one’s success?
Your thought life is where your emotions, perceptions & belief system are created. Our thought lives form the structure for our words and actions. What you think in your inward life inevitably spills out onto your outward life. You can either be defeated in your thought life before you ever take action by keeping negativity, or you can transform your thought life by redirecting to positive outcomes. You can have victory in your thought life struggles by managing your emotions and turning setbacks into opportunities to lead you to your path of success.
Finally, with COVID-19 changing the landscape of the business world into one more focused on remote and virtual positions, do you have any tips for people navigating this unfamiliar landscape?
People build businesses, and people will always be the major contributors to profit worth & growth. It’s so important to set boundaries, maintain a consistent routine(especially a morning routine); it sets the tone of your day & keeps you disciplined. Secondly, be sure to over-communicate. It can be challenging to no longer be in an office where people can see you, so communication is much more critical, and stay connected to your team. Checking in with your colleagues and having video conferences helps minimize isolation while enhancing team unity & productivity. And last but certainly not least, prioritize self-care and making it part of your daily routine. It can be as simple as taking a break to get up to get away from your computer and go outside for lunch or doing something fun. It’s important that you get & feel refreshed so that you can be the best version of yourself.
With her own experience working up the ladder and her knowledge of corporate culture, Janelle Reid and Divine Career Solutions help provide an essential service of preparing and aiding individuals for entrance into a workforce that is constantly shifting. Especially after COVID-19, this guide is essential for many as we enter a different corporate landscape. Divine Career Solutions is tailored particularly well for an inclusive workforce, with Janelle Reid’s 15 years of experience as an African-American woman in corporate culture enabling her to be effective at helping others in a similar position as she was to find success despite the barriers against them. This advice is now even more accessible with Reid’s book “Awakening Your Value Proposition: How to Be At Your Best to Deliver Solutions,” enabling more and more people to have the right tools to find a job that suits them as well as becoming successful in preparing for that job.
For more information, visit the Divine Career Solutions website HERE
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