The way up is hardly linear or straightforward. But if you want to rise certain skills can help you get there. Infact often, you must show you have those skills before getting a shot at that higher job. Here are a few to start developing.
BOTTOM-LINE RESPONSIBILITY: These are usually functions with big direct impact on business results for good or bad. Bottom-line roles call for competencies such as leadership, financial wisdom, sound decision making and judgement, problem solving, customer relationship development. No single job will give you these at a go so look for opportunity to work on projects to build these skills and to work with individuals who will challenge you and help you step up.
'LINE OF SIGHT' ABILITY: This is ability to connect the dots, to achieve synergy by finding a way to see how things are linked or can things work together. It’s drilling down and focusing on things really makes a difference; identifying the most important issues in a complex situation and coming up with concrete practical actions from what might seem like a ‘maze’
LINE MANAGEMENT: Managing others is challenging and rewarding at the same time. It’s the opportunity to enable others to do their best job and fulfil their potential. By managing others, you effectively become a ‘multiplier’ with responsibility and opportunity to motivate better individual performance and influence the development of the most important resource of any organisation- employees.
CAPACITY TO 'DRAW THE LINE': The higher you go the better able you should be to make the tough decisions, take the risks and chart a way forward. You will hinder your effectiveness if you agonise over too much detail or fail to sift through the clutter and make choices about what matters. There will always be grey areas to work through but don’t get stuck there. Ask for help and make progress rather than leaving things unresolved.
Now take action: Identify one way to start developing one of the above skills
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Monday, February 13, 2012
Hold your own during change
Change is difficult especially when it’s coming at you full speed and you feel you have no control over it. What you cannot afford is to be a ‘passenger’ during change. Here are ways to respond right from the start.
CONFIRM HOW THE CHANGE AFFECTS YOU: Even though change in an organisation tends to affect a lot of people, your priority is understand the change and how it’ll affect you whether directly such as your role changing or indirectly through impact on your team.
HAVE A VISION OF WHAT YOU'D LIKE: When you understand how you are likely to be affected by the change, investigate what your options, opportunities or even what the costs to you are. Reflect on these and keep close to the process so that you know how things are unfolding and what decisions you need to be making.
ACCEPT WHAT YOU CAN'T CHANGE: Focus on what is possible and have a positive attitude. This can challenging especially if change is not going to be beneficial; but you must find a way to do so because if the change happens you don’t want to lose out by getting stuck on what you can’t influence.
NEVER SEE YOURSELF AS A VICTIM: Sometimes it can feel very much like that. Allow yourself to deal with any difficult emotions you may be feeling, frustration, even anger (don’t throw any objects please. Make sure you are working out a forward direction amidst the change.
GROUND YOURSELF WITH SUPPORT: A change process can be complicated whether it affects you directly or not. It helps to create a support network to help you adjust. It might help to get someone to look at the situation from a detached position and to help you adapt your perspective in a way that's helpful.
ENGAGE OPENLY AND HONESTLY: Don’t sit on the fence. Engaging can take many forms from playing an active role in the change process to simply sharing your honest opinion about what’s going or staying open to how the change unfolds.
Now take action: What one thing can you do to handle change better?
CONFIRM HOW THE CHANGE AFFECTS YOU: Even though change in an organisation tends to affect a lot of people, your priority is understand the change and how it’ll affect you whether directly such as your role changing or indirectly through impact on your team.
HAVE A VISION OF WHAT YOU'D LIKE: When you understand how you are likely to be affected by the change, investigate what your options, opportunities or even what the costs to you are. Reflect on these and keep close to the process so that you know how things are unfolding and what decisions you need to be making.
ACCEPT WHAT YOU CAN'T CHANGE: Focus on what is possible and have a positive attitude. This can challenging especially if change is not going to be beneficial; but you must find a way to do so because if the change happens you don’t want to lose out by getting stuck on what you can’t influence.
NEVER SEE YOURSELF AS A VICTIM: Sometimes it can feel very much like that. Allow yourself to deal with any difficult emotions you may be feeling, frustration, even anger (don’t throw any objects please. Make sure you are working out a forward direction amidst the change.
GROUND YOURSELF WITH SUPPORT: A change process can be complicated whether it affects you directly or not. It helps to create a support network to help you adjust. It might help to get someone to look at the situation from a detached position and to help you adapt your perspective in a way that's helpful.
ENGAGE OPENLY AND HONESTLY: Don’t sit on the fence. Engaging can take many forms from playing an active role in the change process to simply sharing your honest opinion about what’s going or staying open to how the change unfolds.
Now take action: What one thing can you do to handle change better?
Sunday, February 5, 2012
What kind of team mate are you?
Premium is placed on team-working in the workplace and rightly so. But when we think of team work many tend to think about others and whether they are team players. I believe for strong teamwork to happen, we must start with ourselves. So how do you assess if you a team player? Below are some thoughts.
YOU ARE RELIABLE AND ACCOUNTABLE: Because you want you and colleagues to succeed. You are helpful, loyal and able to positively reinforce the impact of the team. Sometimes, this might mean for example knowing a little more than your area of core responsibility in order to give an informed perspective, be a sounding board for a colleague, make choices that are considerate of others or help out when colleagues are in distress trying to meet deadlines.
YOU EARN CONFIDENCE AND TRUST: Because others have faith in your ability to do your part of the team task on time and to the standard required; to pull together with the team, soak the pressure that might come with any work overload, working out the most time efficient way to get assignments done and working with minimum supervision and sticking to commitments.
YOU SHOW EMOTIONAL MATURITY: By giving credit where it belongs, not taking things personally, managing your own morale, improving your communication style and receiving constructive feedback graciously. Also not acingt in a way that suggests that you see your job as more important compared to others’, being the colleague you expect others to be, not being quick to judge others or place too much importance on your own opinions in team decision making.
YOU ARE SELF-MOTIVATED: By setting self-imposed deadlines and demonstrating a strong organised effort, push and energy to do what it takes to get things done; moving forward on your own initiative, demonstrating enough drive to set your own ground rules and live by them, anticipating needs of the team, showing ambition to perform, focusing on what matters and being highly productive.
Now take action: Identify one way in which you can become a better team player
YOU ARE RELIABLE AND ACCOUNTABLE: Because you want you and colleagues to succeed. You are helpful, loyal and able to positively reinforce the impact of the team. Sometimes, this might mean for example knowing a little more than your area of core responsibility in order to give an informed perspective, be a sounding board for a colleague, make choices that are considerate of others or help out when colleagues are in distress trying to meet deadlines.
YOU EARN CONFIDENCE AND TRUST: Because others have faith in your ability to do your part of the team task on time and to the standard required; to pull together with the team, soak the pressure that might come with any work overload, working out the most time efficient way to get assignments done and working with minimum supervision and sticking to commitments.
YOU SHOW EMOTIONAL MATURITY: By giving credit where it belongs, not taking things personally, managing your own morale, improving your communication style and receiving constructive feedback graciously. Also not acingt in a way that suggests that you see your job as more important compared to others’, being the colleague you expect others to be, not being quick to judge others or place too much importance on your own opinions in team decision making.
YOU ARE SELF-MOTIVATED: By setting self-imposed deadlines and demonstrating a strong organised effort, push and energy to do what it takes to get things done; moving forward on your own initiative, demonstrating enough drive to set your own ground rules and live by them, anticipating needs of the team, showing ambition to perform, focusing on what matters and being highly productive.
Now take action: Identify one way in which you can become a better team player
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Unlearn what no longer works
Learning new things is important for one’s career but so is unlearning things that may be retarding your progress; habits, attitudes, knowledge, ways of doing things and that may be stalling your advancement. Not easy to do- here are ways to start.
IDENTIFY YOUR SACRED COWS: These are the beliefs, ideas etc you hold dear but which no longer are helpful. How often do you ask if the way you’re doing something is as effective as it was when you started doing? What critical feedback will you reject because you have decided in advance it’s unjustified? What tasks will you not let go off because you believe its best done a certain way? Where do you need to be more open-minded in order to shed what no longer serves you?
THINK LIKE A BEGINNER: It’s good to pride ourselves in what we know but sometimes an attitude of ‘I am the expert’ can get in the way of weeding out stale, unfruitful thoughts, knowledge and attitudes. When you go over things with a ‘fresh innocent’ mind, you are able to identify blockages and ask basic questions that challenge your status quo, leave the dysfunctional behind and enable you move yourself forward.
STICK WITH WHAT GROWS YOU: Be committed to growth so much so that you can be ruthless with things that take you back. Your past success even in the same environment may not necessarily be a predictor of future success. Stay curious and use the principle of growth to judge what’s useful to you or not.
BE A WORK IN PROGRESS: Unlearning things you’ve done for a long period takes time and so does developing an attitude that is willing to prune any ‘dead wood’. So don’t feel you have to unlearn whatever overnight. Avoid getting into auto-pilot mode so that you don’t revert to the old things. Adopt ‘alternatives thinking’ which will make it easier for you to identify and weigh options and be able to let go what does not work.
Now take action: Identify one thing you need to start unlearning this month
IDENTIFY YOUR SACRED COWS: These are the beliefs, ideas etc you hold dear but which no longer are helpful. How often do you ask if the way you’re doing something is as effective as it was when you started doing? What critical feedback will you reject because you have decided in advance it’s unjustified? What tasks will you not let go off because you believe its best done a certain way? Where do you need to be more open-minded in order to shed what no longer serves you?
THINK LIKE A BEGINNER: It’s good to pride ourselves in what we know but sometimes an attitude of ‘I am the expert’ can get in the way of weeding out stale, unfruitful thoughts, knowledge and attitudes. When you go over things with a ‘fresh innocent’ mind, you are able to identify blockages and ask basic questions that challenge your status quo, leave the dysfunctional behind and enable you move yourself forward.
STICK WITH WHAT GROWS YOU: Be committed to growth so much so that you can be ruthless with things that take you back. Your past success even in the same environment may not necessarily be a predictor of future success. Stay curious and use the principle of growth to judge what’s useful to you or not.
BE A WORK IN PROGRESS: Unlearning things you’ve done for a long period takes time and so does developing an attitude that is willing to prune any ‘dead wood’. So don’t feel you have to unlearn whatever overnight. Avoid getting into auto-pilot mode so that you don’t revert to the old things. Adopt ‘alternatives thinking’ which will make it easier for you to identify and weigh options and be able to let go what does not work.
Now take action: Identify one thing you need to start unlearning this month
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Job seeking? here's a heads up
Once upon a time, the most important thing about finding a new job was passing the interview. Still true but other things have become as important. Here are a couple of things to pay attention to and get right.
CHOOSE REFERENCES CAREFULLY: When you ask someone to be your reference, you are asking them to put their reputation on the line for you. Some references have cost people jobs so make sure your referee genuinely believes in you. Choose referees you’ve worked closely with, maintained a good relationship with, preferably someone who can discuss your skills and experience in relation to the position you’re applying for. Consult referees before putting them down so that they agree and are not caught off guard when contacted. Remind them of your achievements and of the value you have provided in previous jobs. Remember to thank them and let them know the outcome of the interview.
WATCH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TRAIL: These days employers can google candidates to learn more about them. Social media is where you let down your hair but fact is it’s out there for all to see; so follow the unwritten rules for anything that’s put in in 'black and white'. Think before you post. Vent if you feel you need to but do so without name calling, using foul language or creating a negative picture of who you are. Ever googled yourself? If what you see doesn't portray you accurately, may be time to reflect more of the real you
KNOW WHAT THE COMPANY WANTS: You want a job but to have a good shot you must understand what the employer needs. Successful job seekers understand that what the employer needs is what matters. So study the organization before showing up for that interview, what problems are they facing? What solutions can you offer? Besides qualifications, what organizations look for are whether you’ll do the job or will be a good fit so find ways to respond effectively to these aspects.
Now take action: Review your references and ensure they are fit for purpose
CHOOSE REFERENCES CAREFULLY: When you ask someone to be your reference, you are asking them to put their reputation on the line for you. Some references have cost people jobs so make sure your referee genuinely believes in you. Choose referees you’ve worked closely with, maintained a good relationship with, preferably someone who can discuss your skills and experience in relation to the position you’re applying for. Consult referees before putting them down so that they agree and are not caught off guard when contacted. Remind them of your achievements and of the value you have provided in previous jobs. Remember to thank them and let them know the outcome of the interview.
WATCH YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TRAIL: These days employers can google candidates to learn more about them. Social media is where you let down your hair but fact is it’s out there for all to see; so follow the unwritten rules for anything that’s put in in 'black and white'. Think before you post. Vent if you feel you need to but do so without name calling, using foul language or creating a negative picture of who you are. Ever googled yourself? If what you see doesn't portray you accurately, may be time to reflect more of the real you
KNOW WHAT THE COMPANY WANTS: You want a job but to have a good shot you must understand what the employer needs. Successful job seekers understand that what the employer needs is what matters. So study the organization before showing up for that interview, what problems are they facing? What solutions can you offer? Besides qualifications, what organizations look for are whether you’ll do the job or will be a good fit so find ways to respond effectively to these aspects.
Now take action: Review your references and ensure they are fit for purpose
Monday, January 9, 2012
Take a long term perspective
Long term perspective is the amount of time you take into consideration when determining present actions. If you want your career to develop well you have to take a long term view and act in line with that approach.
START WITH THE END IN MIND: Have a long term goal. Hard work helps but making the right choices is crucial. For example if your aim is to be a senior executive in a financial services firm in the next 5 years, spending the next 3 years in the fashion industry might not necessarily help you develop the top end skills you need.
BE PREPARED TO SACRIFICE: Bear the good ‘pain’. For example foregoing buying that new item so that you can take that professional magazine subscription instead? Or skipping your favourite movie and for a mind-enriching conversation?. These ‘sacrifices’ increase your value and improve your future opportunities
THINK THROUGH CONSEQUENCES: Before you implement decisions. You won’t be able to determine the impact of every decision but neither should you just do things anyhow. Ask yourself; what will happen if I don’t take that action? How can I minimise any potential negative consequences? Why is the decision the best course of action?
THINK AND WORK STRATEGICALLY: Focus only on high priority and high value activities and spend sufficient time on them. Practice forward thinking and pursue what’s consistent with your values and what you are trying to achieve. Don’t just do what comes to mind or what you feel like doing in the moment but things that will move you forward.
PRACTICE SELF DISCIPLINE: This is getting yourself to take action regardless of without you feel like doing it or not. Tough call but without behaving in a disciplined way, you are likely to derail. So have a plan that has specific targets, take stock regularly so that you can improve and without fail do something daily to support your goals.
Now take action : Write down you want to achieve in the next 3 years.
START WITH THE END IN MIND: Have a long term goal. Hard work helps but making the right choices is crucial. For example if your aim is to be a senior executive in a financial services firm in the next 5 years, spending the next 3 years in the fashion industry might not necessarily help you develop the top end skills you need.
BE PREPARED TO SACRIFICE: Bear the good ‘pain’. For example foregoing buying that new item so that you can take that professional magazine subscription instead? Or skipping your favourite movie and for a mind-enriching conversation?. These ‘sacrifices’ increase your value and improve your future opportunities
THINK THROUGH CONSEQUENCES: Before you implement decisions. You won’t be able to determine the impact of every decision but neither should you just do things anyhow. Ask yourself; what will happen if I don’t take that action? How can I minimise any potential negative consequences? Why is the decision the best course of action?
THINK AND WORK STRATEGICALLY: Focus only on high priority and high value activities and spend sufficient time on them. Practice forward thinking and pursue what’s consistent with your values and what you are trying to achieve. Don’t just do what comes to mind or what you feel like doing in the moment but things that will move you forward.
PRACTICE SELF DISCIPLINE: This is getting yourself to take action regardless of without you feel like doing it or not. Tough call but without behaving in a disciplined way, you are likely to derail. So have a plan that has specific targets, take stock regularly so that you can improve and without fail do something daily to support your goals.
Now take action : Write down you want to achieve in the next 3 years.
Practice self-conversations
Happy 2012! I want to share with you one habit that I think will help you throughout the year– Self-conversation. Here are my three questions to get you started.
WHAT DO I BELIEVE IS POSSIBLE FOR ME?: What are the things you wish for but never see happen? Maybe time to reflect on it again?. What do you need to achieve it? Which ones do you already have and which do you needed to develop? Whose support do you need? What wrong habits are stopping you that you need to drop? Think again; that ‘big goal’ may be within your reach as long as you go after it.
WHERE DO I NEED TO SHOW MORE COURAGE?: Usually it’s not skills or habits or even lack of ambition that stands in the way but fear or a lack of confidence or belief that based on where you are now you cannot go after that big vision; you can’t even imagine yourself doing that. Of course you can; ask yourself what would you do if you were being courageous? What would you do that you are not doing now? Don’t think courage has to be about doing something mighty. Maybe for you it’s just having the courage to speak up more so your opinions count. So take that action and see what happens.
WHAT BAGGAGE DO I NEED TO OFFLOAD? These are things that worked for you in the past and which you are holding onto but which no longer work. It could be not being open to a new way of doing things because you’ve always done things a particular way or perhaps having a certain image of yourself, of what you can or not do? Indeed, anything you are holding onto that prevents you from moving forward or restricts your progress is baggage. Identify these and make a deliberate decision to leave them behind and unlearn attitudes that are holding you back.
Now take action: Identify baggage you need to drop.
WHAT DO I BELIEVE IS POSSIBLE FOR ME?: What are the things you wish for but never see happen? Maybe time to reflect on it again?. What do you need to achieve it? Which ones do you already have and which do you needed to develop? Whose support do you need? What wrong habits are stopping you that you need to drop? Think again; that ‘big goal’ may be within your reach as long as you go after it.
WHERE DO I NEED TO SHOW MORE COURAGE?: Usually it’s not skills or habits or even lack of ambition that stands in the way but fear or a lack of confidence or belief that based on where you are now you cannot go after that big vision; you can’t even imagine yourself doing that. Of course you can; ask yourself what would you do if you were being courageous? What would you do that you are not doing now? Don’t think courage has to be about doing something mighty. Maybe for you it’s just having the courage to speak up more so your opinions count. So take that action and see what happens.
WHAT BAGGAGE DO I NEED TO OFFLOAD? These are things that worked for you in the past and which you are holding onto but which no longer work. It could be not being open to a new way of doing things because you’ve always done things a particular way or perhaps having a certain image of yourself, of what you can or not do? Indeed, anything you are holding onto that prevents you from moving forward or restricts your progress is baggage. Identify these and make a deliberate decision to leave them behind and unlearn attitudes that are holding you back.
Now take action: Identify baggage you need to drop.
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