Project 52: Week 46

Our reflection and meditation ...

“The really important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty little unsexy ways, every day. That is real freedom. That is being taught how to think. The alternative is unconsciousness, the default setting, the "rat race" — the constant, gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.”

“And I submit that this is what the real, no-shit value of your liberal arts education is supposed to be about: How to keep from going through your comfortable, prosperous, respectable adult life dead, unconscious, a slave to your head and to your natural default setting of being uniquely, completely, imperially alone, day in and day out.”

― David Foster Wallace, This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

We are delighted to continue with a year-long offering as part of Career Services initiatives. ~ Gerald Doyle

Project 52: Week 46

WELCOME TO Email signatures

In accompanying our participants on their career journeys, we invite ourselves to communicate our inspirations, visions, and invitations to dialogue. We consider this work part of the “branding” element of our career journeys: putting ourselves forward to connect with and attract conversation with like-minded others, including others who can be our counterparts in new employments, new entrepreneurial ventures, mentorships, and new learning journeys. One deceptively simple way to show up, step forward, and invite dialogue is through our email signatures.

With most email platforms today, we can create multiple email signatures, which may be suitable for different purposes. Possibly one for formal business or organizational correspondence, one for family and friends, one for pro bono activity, one for avocations, and one for curious or adventurous learning journeys.

Email signatures can be straightforward and enhanced in subtle and sophisticated ways. Elements can include (among other things - the list is entirely open to creativity) ...

... including how you are showing up and standing up in the world ..."day in and day out."

Name.  We can present our names with the degree of formality that we find most appropriate to the context: sometimes full names, sometimes nicknames, or short names.  Sometimes, names that reflect our partnership or marital status, names that we hold only personally, and occasionally professional names.

Contact details. Email address, phone number, postal address, social media channels where we can be reached or messaged, as appropriate to the context

Social media addresses and URLs.  LinkedIn addresses are especially popular, as are X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, as appropriate in the context.

Blogs or website addresses. Ones we sponsor or manage or those of groups we belong to or endorse.

Pronouns. By which pronouns we wish to be addressed

Job title.  Current or aspirational

Role description. Current as incumbent and aspirational

Affiliations. Schools, colleges, universities, employers, corporate affiliations, professional, advocacy or community associations

Degrees or certifications Achieved or in process, with relevant dates where appropriate

Projects or works. Announcing or celebrating works of art, research, writing; published and currently available to others or works in progress

Quotation(s) One or two brief quotations from an inspiring writer or thinker, one that briefly highlights our sense of inspiration, purpose, values, or areas for current exploration.

Category affiliation. Sometimes, we share our categories from psychometric tests or profiles, e.g., INFJ (Myers Briggs), Belbin, StrengthsFinder….

Logos. If appropriate, we can add the logo of our company, non-profit, school, educational institution, or professional association - or one of our designs if we have one.

Colors or images. Using a bit of color or design could be by sharing a logo and image or highlighting some relevant text in color.

As noted, signatures can start small and straightforward and then be enhanced and developed over time. We invite “right-sizing” them, making them brief and focused enough to communicate effectively and to have coherence and elegance while bringing forward a few themes when this serves the purpose.

Perhaps you can see how an email signature, which anyone and everyone can create, can be a fruitful starting point for self-expression - “branding’ - and the invitation to dialogue in multiple directions and dimensions.

As always, I'm ready to accompany you in creating one or several email signatures. He is happy to be your partner in using these and other resources to show up in the world, express yourself, announce or advertise your gifts or offerings, and open the door to new learnings and professional or avocational opportunities.

Monday, 7 October 2024

Gerald Doyle, Career Services

Recommended Listening and Viewing

This is Water: David Foster Wallace (Spring 2005, Commencement Address)

Residing in Chicago, Gerald Doyle provides ministry placement research and consulting for Career Services at the Catholic Theological Union and career services and coaching to students, families, and community members at Wolcott College Preparatory High School. He advises several edtech companies, including Upkey and GetSet Learning, and serves as the Interim Chief Administrative Officer at the US-China Catholic Association and as president of the board at Syrian Community Network

Scott  Downs, a former investment banker, management consultant, and entrepreneur, now works as an Agile coach, seeking to call forward great leaders and organizations based on great cultures. He is a consultant with Expleo Group and is an associate of the TrustTemenos Leadership Academy.

Scott and Gerald are co-founders of Tri Cosain, a practice that weaves inspiration, learning, and career for leadership in life and work. Gerald and Scott co-authored 9 Questions for Leadership in Life and Work, Conversations of Inquiry, and several other volumes in the Tri Cosain series. Their work embraces equity, inclusion, diversity, and well-being as foundations for personal leadership.

Copyright Scott Downs and Gerald Doyle 2023-25