If your vision is wanting to make a go places, you’re won’t achieve that by doing the little you can and hoping for the best. What must you do then? Do things that propel exponential personal growth. Here are a few suggestions;
BE DELIBERATE IN YOUR EFFORTS: What level of excellence or goal is eluding you? Why is this so? What do you do when you’re struggling? Where would you like to go on onto from what you are doing now? You need to be intentional, develop big goals based on a core set of skills you know you have that you can get you started on, make sure you find a mentor who will guide you, be your sounding board and help address any skills gaps quickly.
AVOID GRAVITY PEOPLE: These are people who specialise in negativity. You are excited about something, they burst your bubble. They may not do this on purpose. They see the glass half empty and are eternal pessimists. Sometimes, ‘gravity people’ can even be your boss, who will keep you in a box rather than encourage you to step out and take out a chance on your potential. If you have such a boss, you’ll need to consider moving to another department or another job.
BE YOUR BEST ADVOCATE: If you have the right people around you, there will no shortage of people who will wish you well. But you should be your own strongest champion because that is what will keep you going when people can’t always be available when you need them. Keep your mind and energy focused on what you can do rather than what you can’t. Avoid self-induced negative stress and side step any unnecessary ‘drama’ in that divides your attention and drains you.
BREAK UNHELPFUL PATTERNS: These take several forms; always distracted at work?, seeking counsel from the wrong source?, defending the indefensible, blaming others for your troubles?, not taking personal responsibility for mistakes?, abusing your position? Identify unhelpful patterns in yourself and find a way to break them. A good way is identify someone willing to be your ‘monitor’ to hold you accountable.
Now take action: What one thing will you do in the next 6 months to increase your personal growth
Saturday, July 21, 2012
Evolve into a collaborator
Becoming a collaborator helps you achieve more than you could do on your own. It also helps you support others and earn some good quality goodwill and loyalty that could come in handy. How do you become a collaborator?
PREPARE TO LEAD AND TO FOLLOW: Good collaborators can adapt well and become what the situation needs them to become, changing behaviours as necessary to keep moving forward To collaborate well, you must engage others early, focus on achieving a ‘win win’ result for everyone. You must also be comfortable with lining up behind others best placed to lead in any given circumstance.
BE AWARE OF OTHERS’S NEEDS: So that you can agree mutually beneficial goals. Emphasise what you have in common with others, how you can give your best and get the best from others. Understand yourself, where your ‘rough edges’ are so that you don’t rub people the wrong way. Appeal to others by showing that you can adapt to their needs and interests meet them half way.
FIND OUT WHAT MAY NOT BE OBVIOUS: To be a true collaborator, you must learn to read between the lines, connect the dots and find a way to work out what your counterpart may want that might not be immediately obvious. Don’t be afraid to ask questions in order to establish what’s important to them. Move with purpose but pay attention to your intuition tells you.
BE COMFORTABLE WITH GETTING SOMETHING TOO: Collaboration isn’t just about helping someone else achieve their goals, interests etc. You don’t have to give up your goals. Be prepared to get your ideas across in a decisive way provided you don’t expect others to give up their goals for yours. Develop high expectations of yourself and others. Be clear what support you need from others and ask for it.
SHOW YOU CAN BE TRUSTED: Collaboration is a partnership and so you must be earn the confidence of others, show that you are committed to their interests and willing to put your energies in. Make everyone involved feels they have a stake in what’s being pursued
Now take action: Where would your biggest strength be as a collaborator?
PREPARE TO LEAD AND TO FOLLOW: Good collaborators can adapt well and become what the situation needs them to become, changing behaviours as necessary to keep moving forward To collaborate well, you must engage others early, focus on achieving a ‘win win’ result for everyone. You must also be comfortable with lining up behind others best placed to lead in any given circumstance.
BE AWARE OF OTHERS’S NEEDS: So that you can agree mutually beneficial goals. Emphasise what you have in common with others, how you can give your best and get the best from others. Understand yourself, where your ‘rough edges’ are so that you don’t rub people the wrong way. Appeal to others by showing that you can adapt to their needs and interests meet them half way.
FIND OUT WHAT MAY NOT BE OBVIOUS: To be a true collaborator, you must learn to read between the lines, connect the dots and find a way to work out what your counterpart may want that might not be immediately obvious. Don’t be afraid to ask questions in order to establish what’s important to them. Move with purpose but pay attention to your intuition tells you.
BE COMFORTABLE WITH GETTING SOMETHING TOO: Collaboration isn’t just about helping someone else achieve their goals, interests etc. You don’t have to give up your goals. Be prepared to get your ideas across in a decisive way provided you don’t expect others to give up their goals for yours. Develop high expectations of yourself and others. Be clear what support you need from others and ask for it.
SHOW YOU CAN BE TRUSTED: Collaboration is a partnership and so you must be earn the confidence of others, show that you are committed to their interests and willing to put your energies in. Make everyone involved feels they have a stake in what’s being pursued
Now take action: Where would your biggest strength be as a collaborator?
Monday, July 9, 2012
Heed the red, amber , green lights
The traffic light symbol is increasingly been used outside of the field of road traffic, for example to assess status of projects. This symbol can also be a useful guide for managing your career as follows;
RED: This means red-flag; warning signs that could have negative consequences if ignored. Red-flags include putting your career advancement in someone else’s hands, not investing in yourself, fighting with your boss, confusing your job with your career, not updating your skills etc or even ‘thrashing’ your employer to others. Red can also mean ‘stop’. Some ‘stops’ to consider are making money the most important factor in career decisions, making choices for benefits you can get ‘now’; sticking with what’s familiar instead of creating new paths for yourself or always pursuing others’ definition of success.
AMBER: Amber is being in a constant state of preparation; the time to get ready and stay ready for the big breaks or even setting new goals for yourself. Amber time is when you do what you need to improve where you don’t measure up, learn what you need to learn to increase your success and identify where you need to persist. Amber time is also when to ask yourself some hard questions like; is where I am headed really where I wish to go? Is my current job taking me in a positive career direction? Am I deploying my strongest skills in what I am doing now? What are the calculated risks I need to take to open up more opportunities for myself?
GREEN: Green is cruising time; when you are in roles that you enjoy and draw on your strongest skills. But just as the traffic lights don’t stay green forever, you never know when you are going to hit a bump or a red sign. So use the green period to increase your momentum, grow important professional relationships and be recognised for what you can do. Also remember that whether you can cruise or not when the lights go green depends on the condition of your ‘career car’ which include a strong skills set, a positive mind-set and attitude, a good reputation and lot of good will from others.
Now take action: Do a traffic lights assessment of the status of your career now.
RED: This means red-flag; warning signs that could have negative consequences if ignored. Red-flags include putting your career advancement in someone else’s hands, not investing in yourself, fighting with your boss, confusing your job with your career, not updating your skills etc or even ‘thrashing’ your employer to others. Red can also mean ‘stop’. Some ‘stops’ to consider are making money the most important factor in career decisions, making choices for benefits you can get ‘now’; sticking with what’s familiar instead of creating new paths for yourself or always pursuing others’ definition of success.
AMBER: Amber is being in a constant state of preparation; the time to get ready and stay ready for the big breaks or even setting new goals for yourself. Amber time is when you do what you need to improve where you don’t measure up, learn what you need to learn to increase your success and identify where you need to persist. Amber time is also when to ask yourself some hard questions like; is where I am headed really where I wish to go? Is my current job taking me in a positive career direction? Am I deploying my strongest skills in what I am doing now? What are the calculated risks I need to take to open up more opportunities for myself?
GREEN: Green is cruising time; when you are in roles that you enjoy and draw on your strongest skills. But just as the traffic lights don’t stay green forever, you never know when you are going to hit a bump or a red sign. So use the green period to increase your momentum, grow important professional relationships and be recognised for what you can do. Also remember that whether you can cruise or not when the lights go green depends on the condition of your ‘career car’ which include a strong skills set, a positive mind-set and attitude, a good reputation and lot of good will from others.
Now take action: Do a traffic lights assessment of the status of your career now.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)