06/03/2017
Hello friends,
Today I would like to share 10 tips to help you survive and thrive in the corporate world – I have learnt many of these tips the hard way but once I started to apply them, my career trajectory improved greatly; so if your aim is to progress in your job and organisation, these tips are for you.
1. Be prepared – prepare for every meeting you attend. Your preparation could be as detailed as reading meeting material before a meeting and having a list of questions in mind; or as simple as checking the list of attendees and identifying your key stakeholders.
2. Never ever leave a meeting without saying a word – If you are in that meeting, say something. If you don’t have something new to say – ask questions, critic suggestions, reiterate back to people what they have said - participate.
3. Don’t take copious notes in meetings – When you put your head down to write notes, you become invisible and you are not the secretary – jot down key points and the rest of the time, keep your head up, make eye contact, contribute – if you must do it, record the meeting.
4. Never play the avoidance game – don’t avoid your manager or boss – if you have questions ask, if you don’t know something ask, if you know something, tell them you know it, chase your boss for regular face time, update them on what you are doing…. Remind your boss you exist and you are working hard; which brings me to the next point
5. Blow your own trumpet! – the days of your work speaking for itself are over, bosses today have too much on their plates to look out for work that is speaking – do the speaking for your work – let your boss and your team know what you are doing – volunteer to share your work outcomes –send that email telling them about a work achievement – be self-congratulatory when necessary. This is how to get promoted.
6. Tell your boss what you want – if you want to get promoted – say so! If you want to get more challenging work – say so. Your boss can't read your mind.
7. Don’t send rambling emails – go straight to the point. When you over explain yourself in your email it comes across as weak and lacking confidence. Short and sharp emails are the best.
8. Avoid filling your email with please and thank yous – this was a major crime I used to commit - my emails used to read like I was ever so grateful – people dismiss these kind of emails simply because it says your request can wait, you have no bite, you are not in a hurry and you will be grateful for ANYTHING you can get – no no no. Read that email, now delete the please.
9. You are not sorry – again the politeness trait; quit the apologising. It weakens the point you are trying to make and the general perception of you. Women are particularly notorious with this and I didn’t realise it until my mentor pointed it out to me. We apologise for having an opinion, for having a differing opinion, we apologise for asking questions in meetings, we even apologise for getting on the elevator. Stop it now.
10. Don’t take it personal – this is a big one. A lot of us take feedback personal…. Its hard not to especially when you know you have done good work and someone comes with “you could have done it better”. When you take feedback personal, you miss out on an opportunity to get details of the feedback or to weaken it. Let me give you an example – someone says your presentation yesterday was great but it would have been better if it was more in-depth. Your response should be – thank you, what did you think was missing that could have given it more depth? Don’t let the feedback provider walk away with just giving you a surface opinion – invite them to explain the reasoning behind the feedback, calmly question it to help you understand it better – although all feedback is opinion, it is not always intended to hurt you, a lot of times its genuinely honest feedback!
