Reinvent Yourself at Workplace

Reinvent Yourself at Workplace

Are you fed up with the job you’re in and want an exciting new career? Are you seeking promotion and hoping for a pay rise or to get noticed at work? Then it’s the right time to reinvent your personal branding.

The concept of personal branding has been going down the wrong road and needs to be reinvented. For many people, reinvention is precisely the thing that needs to happen. People get stuck in jobs which they don’t like, in relationships that aren’t fulfilling and in virtually all areas of life, and often because people believe that they have made their bed and have to lie in it. We need to fulfill our potential and we do this by developing our unique, authentic, distinctive and compelling life-story: and living it!

Today people should assess their personal brand strategy with the same thoroughness that successful companies like Apple, Virgin and others do for their brands. One need to look at what he wants his purpose to be, whether as an employee, an entrepreneur, even as a life partner. The only way to build a powerful personal brand, is to do it profoundly and deeply: to actually reinvent yourself – but authentically!

Here are the 10 tips:

1. Your personal brand isn’t about your qualifications and how smart you are: it’s about making yourself of distinctive recognizable value and traits. Even if you have the lousiest job, if you do it with an absolute commitment to excellence then you will get noticed.

2. The greatest skill in a modern business or organization is to be able to look for solutions to the problems and to create more effective strategies. Please remember that doesn’t mean having to be cleverer than others: sometimes it just means applying a little more attentiveness.

3. The second greatest skill is to be able to communicate your thoughts & ideas with regard for others’ understanding and position. Nobody likes a show-off or stubbornness, least of all managers in organizations. So be clear and make your case with conviction, but never be arrogant or uncompromising.

4. In any small business, or in any team within a big organization, your personal ‘brand’ is best expressed through actions about how and what you contribute. It’s not good to claim to be valuable. That’s like a comedian claiming to be funny. You have to ‘be’ valuable.

5. When your contribution is being noticed, you will find others who try to stop you, create hindrances, trip you up, or trap you. Pay no heed to those, other than to be aware of them. Engaging in inter-staff warfare can only damage your personal brand and will never enhance your career.

6. Great brands are created on authenticity, not on lies. Never, ever invent a better back story for yourself. You will, ultimately, be found out. Instead tell your real story: but tell it better by engaging emotions and imagination.

7. Don’t go for promotion just because you think you should. Don’t follow the career path as though it was pre-determined. It isn’t. Think about your career strategy. What do you really, truly want to be doing in two or five years’ time? If a promotion helps take you there that’s great. But if it doesn’t, consider other approaches. A different company? Working for yourself (own venture or as a freelancer)?

8. Learn to create balance between hope and fear. Anything worth doing like a new job or a big presentation etc will induce fear and anxiety. But you need to step around that fear or your personal ‘brand’ will never progress. But don’t fall into the X-Factor trap of assuming that you will succeed just because you want something badly enough. Never try to wing it! Prepare, prepare, prepare.

9. If you don’t love your job but there appears no prospect of changing it in the near future, don’t despair. Change your attitude to it instead: treat everything you do as ‘training’ for what comes next.

10. If you’ve made an error of judgments, or any other kind of mistake, do not try to hide it. Own up to it and take the flak. Don’t fool yourself and take the responsibility of your actions. Learn something from it, explain what you have learned, show why having been through the experience you are now more valuable than ever, and be the guy who made the famous recovery!

Organizational Behaviour - Bowling Out The Oddballs

Organizational Behaviour - Bowling Out The Oddballs

Key learnings:

Impossible-to-get-along-with seniors are a top reason for attrition, But getting along with them is now becoming a professional requirement

Among the top reasons why employees leave organisations are impossible-to-get-along-with seniors. An effective way to address this issue is to inform seniors how their demeanour affects retention and employee morale. A practical way to deal with it is to equip employees with the art of dealing with tough bosses! The article outlines when equipped with a set of tactics, employees will find it easier to work with the toughies.

The art of getting along

A typical response when stuck with an eccentric boss is to quit. But given the economic low, job-hopping is a luxury few can afford. This however does not mean employees have to put up with poorly- behaved seniors. Moreover, organisations must and can avoid losing talent to poorly- behaved seniors. In short, if working with tough bosses is an occupational hazard then dealing with them is a professional skill! Here is how employees can be equipped with this skill.

As one behavioural expert says, "The first step to skills or competencies updation is awareness". Therefore, in dealing with tough seniors employees need to be aware of the different behavioural traits of the eccentric! Seniors can be categorised as under:

The lion: These seniors believe in roaring! Their modus operandi is based on a belief that much can be accomplished by shouting and creating a commotion. They also use intimidating non-verbal gestures such as staring and hand- on- hips to get their job done. A study reveals that such aggression manifests in those who are either impatient or like the spotlight to be on them for both right/ wrong reasons.

Effective ways of dealing with such seniors include:

. Listening to them without arguing
. Keeping one's ego aside. These seniors are likely to shout at their subordinates anywhere which can be embarrassing
. Following their instructions to the 't'. The best way to deal with impatient seniors is to give them few reasons to complain

The chameleon: Another impatient lot are seniors who want a number of jobs done simultaneously. Although they are not rude they have little tolerance for those who fail to execute their orders. But following too many instructions while ensuring quality is tough, at times even impossible and these seniors do not realise that. In passing instructions and orders they are seldom considerate about their subordinate grasping what and how things need to be done. These seniors are also a forgetful lot -a consequence of attempting to get much accomplished. So at times they will retort with, "When did I ask you to do this?

Effective ways of dealing with such seniors include:

. Making notes of all their instructions and sending them an e-mail about it
. Keeping them posted of the progress on tasks on a daily basis
. Taking them through the to-do list to reconfirm whether what is on it still needs to be done!
. Documenting any communication with them

The Peacock: These seniors hide their shortcomings in their feathers. They are too vain to admit that their position is not a result of hard work and the right competencies but sheer luck! Working with them becomes a challenge because they are poor decision- makers, talk a lot but do little and are least inspiring. The only advantage is, they are not harmful or conniving.

Effective ways of dealing with such seniors include:

. Fanning their false prestige by listening to all they have to say
. Talking to them about tasks and assignments in terms of deliverables and timelines
. Spelling out the benefits or consequences of decision -making at meetings and informal encounters

The fox: These seniors become difficult to deal with because they hit below the belt. Insecure in their positions they believe everyone is a threat and are plotting constantly to frame and fire people. Thankfully, they are a minority but unfortunately they are difficult to identify. Employees get to know of such seniors through others. When identified here is how one can manage around them:

. Documenting every piece of communication
. Keeping them posted of every move made
. Sharing ideas and suggestions only when an audience is around
. Talking about what happened at work with colleagues and other co-workers

Also, "being honest and acting with extreme care is the best policy when dealing with this type of boss," recommends an expert.

The serpent: The most dangerous of the lot are seniors who believe fear motivates employees best to perform optimally. Employees dread them because they:

. Fire people for invalid reasons
. Threaten employees constantly with punitive consequences
. Induce guilt in employees to get work done

According to experts, "The attrition rate of this boss is highest because of the fear and psychosis he creates" and the best way to deal with them is to leave before they can sully one's resume and reputation.

Working with seniors with eccentric behavioural traits is not easy but definitely easier than giving up without trying! Moreover when it comes to building and maintaining employee relationships a bit of their onus is an employee's too. In using the above-mentioned tactics to identify who their seniors are, employees can work around a strategy to work with them better.

Reference: TheManageMentor