Joe Sejean doesn’t think his message will change the corporate world.
He knows it will.
He is confident that the soft skills he promotes will make a difference in the way people interact with each other. He truly believes in developing the professional skills of engaging with people and significantly connecting with others.
Read on to learn more about how this consultant, coach, change agent and podcaster plans to help people switch from a transactional focus to a relationship based one. Learn how Joe proposes we can all use these soft skills to help us flourish.
GLEAC: Who do you have to thank for a decision that you made that got you where you are today?
JOE: My thanks go to Chalhoub Group, my first employer in the UAE. I have worked nearly 10 years with them, and during my fourth role, they offered me a promotion that still honors me.
The position was important; the salary was as well. The challenge was extremely exciting and showed how much they trusted and believed in me.
However, this choice drove me to leave to create my own company. I felt that if I stayed in the group with such great conditions and position, I would never leave and try my own venture. I knew I would take the new job and perform with passion and dedication. I would probably get promoted again and climb to the very top. But I would eventually end up being afraid to lose my position and salary. I did not want to be in that situation.
There was more to life, and I needed that type of proposal to spur me to take a risk. This decision was special: I left based on a positive event (the great offer for a promotion) and not on bad terms. This was a great feeling.
Without Chalhoub Group, I would not have discovered what I really love professionally. Thanks to them, I made a jump into a new life and started the path to who I am now.
GLEAC: What is your superpower soft skill (it can be one or a few)? How do you use it in your job in your sector?
JOE: I see fear. I see pain. I see anger. This helps me immensely in connecting with people around me. I find I can make an impact on them and add value to them. I can transform those emotions to courage and enthusiasm, to flow and to inner peace and joy. That’s a hell of a superpower that I am grateful for and that I love to use in service of others.
GLEAC: In 5 years from now, who do you want to become? Describe in detail. 😉
JOE: Five years from now I will be on the screens of hundreds of millions of people on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other big TV channels. My reality series on coaching will have changed the way people talk to each other in companies all over the planet. I will have helped all the viewers move from a transactional mindset to a relationship focus.
In five years, I will have given access to Ecom sales to thousands of frontliners in the world. They will work from their boutiques and from home. Have the potential to have sustainable lives and to create human connections in their stores and online. They will learn the importance of creating experiences with their e-commerce, in their places of work, on Whatsapp, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat. And how to do events on Twitch, and they will offer emotional experiences in the Metaverse and be proficient in trading cryptos.
In five years, I will have offered to all frontliners the potential to thrive, to express themselves and to live a life full of diverse experiences.
GLEAC: With all the changes happening in the world, is your sector going to survive, and if yes, why? If it won’t be viable anymore in its present form, how does it have to change to survive and evolve?
JOE: My sector will not survive: it will be dominant! I am in the human and relationship business, and we only crave for more of that.
GLEAC: If you had to attract more talent to your team from another sector, who would you want, and with what skill sets?
JOE: I want people who have a total focus on creating more people engagement. Primarily, the behavioral attribute I look for is grit. Beyond that I need people who are excited by impossible challenges and who show ownership and accountability
GLEAC: If the 80-year-old version of you had to give advice to the 8-year-old version of you, what would he say you need to change/buck up on right now?
JOE: I would advise my 8-year-old self to not change a thing. I would advise myself to go through with life and make choices and own them as I have always done. The rest is unimportant.
GLEAC: Which skills will those belonging to your sector have to acquire to become indispensable?
JOE: People in my sector will have to acquire curiosity and boldness. Room temperature is not an option anymore. Have a point of view. Discover others, yourself and the world.
GLEAC: If you had to explain your job to a 5-year-old, how would you do it?
JOE: I help people make others happy.
GLEAC: What is the one thing you learned on your professional journey that you would like to share with the world?
JOE: I would like to share that no one should ever be impressed by status, wealth or fame. Behind those descriptors is a being who is scared, who wants to be loved, who experiences joy, pain, sadness, pleasure and all the emotions in the world. All adults have started by playing with sand, craving for cuddles and loving to laugh. That is the potential we have to change the world – connect with the human being. Remember the child that the person still is. Connect to the emotions and the needs of others.
GLEAC: Work in your sector can get rigorous. How do you keep up the mojo?
JOE: I stopped doing things that drain me. I stopped seeing people who drain me. That is what I need to love what I do 👍
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