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Develop Adaptability & Direction Recognition Skills and Have Confidence in Your Abilities with Stephen Woolston
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Stephen Woolston
Stephen Woolston is a program and service delivery consultant with an extensive background in IT infrastructure. He holds a first-class computer science degree from Nottingham University and started his career working on mainframe systems at Norwich Union. He is also a professional coach, helping people to become happier and more successful in what they do.
In this episode, Phil and Stephen Woolston discuss how to quickly adapt your approach to problem-solving, in an ever-changing landscape, by using radical adaptability and positive direction-finding. How to quickly adapt to new environments, find and fix more problems effectively. As well as the importance of having confidence in your abilities.
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Resources
Stephen Woolston Coaching – Check out Stephen’s website!
2 Top Career Tips
1) Develop radical adaptability and a positive direction finder. You need to have the ability to drop into any commercial environment and quickly figure out what is happening and how to move things in the right direction. During the podcast, Stephen explains, what he means by radical adaptability and positive direction-finding. As well as how you can develop those skills
2) Have confidence in your abilities, don´t worry that you don´t know everything. Nobody understands a technology or subject completely. Tech moves too fast for that to be possible. No firm is running perfect systems. There is no shortage of things to fix or update, so you will always be able to contribute something important.
Show Notes
Worst Career Moment
Stephen was once an operational planner, responsible for the governance of approving renewal costs. When he started, he was handed a cost schedule that he assumed covered everything. Unfortunately, a big expense had been left off that schedule. From this experience, Stephen learned it is not enough to simply check your work. You also need to be on the lookout for mistakes that have slipped through the net. The experience taught him that no colleague can produce flawless work every time.
Career Highlight
For Stephen, the highlight of his career was taking a leading role in Norwich Union´s Unix systems management. At the time, Unix was in its infancy. So, Stephen had to develop backup, recovery, monitoring and alert systems because they were not really available elsewhere.
The Future
The fact that there are always new problems to solve is exciting. But it is also a huge challenge. You have to constantly be learning new things to keep up. Something that will also be the case in the future.
The Reveal
What first attracted you to a career in I.T.?
As a child, Stephen liked sci-fi, so a career in IT was a natural choice.
What is the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Every day you are creating your career. Things are constantly changing so you need to regularly review the direction you are going in.
What is the worst career advice you’ve ever received?
Get into one big, rich and powerful company and stay there.
If you had to begin your career again in today’s world, what would you do?
Stephen would network more and do so from the very start.
What career objectives are you currently focusing on?
Coaching and mentoring.
What’s the number one non-technical skill that has helped you in your career so far?
Communication skills, if yours are good you can work anywhere on any project you want.
What do you do to keep your own career energized?
By seeking opportunities to work in new environments.
What do you do in your spare time away from technology?
To relax, Stephen listens to movie soundtrack music and spends a lot of his downtime coaching others.
Contact The Guest
Contact Stephen Woolston through the following social media platforms:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/woolers
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