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Don't Let Them Underestimate You
Tweet Share on Facebook May 29, 2009 Comment (2)One of the saddest sights in a workplace is the highly skilled person whose accomplishments are discounted or ignored because he or she made the job look easy.
This happens more often than you would imagine. The person tackles responsibilities that would sink a lesser talent, creates a systematic way to address the routine challenges, develops a strong team, and drags order out of chaos. Things begin to hum along.
They hum so well that outsiders conclude the original situation must not have been too bad.
What can you do to prevent this?
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When a Colleague Leaves Under a Cloud
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2009 Comment (1)I received the following e-mail: 'X' has been suspended, with pay, pending the results of an investigation. Please don't make quick judgments regarding this situation. We want to allow this to play out fairly. During this time, 'Y' will assume the duties of "acting director." Programs and activities will continue as planned.
The E-mail was sent by the President of my college. Is this a legal practice?
I’m not going to jump into the legal/illlegal game, as I am not a lawyer. You’ll have to go elsewhere for free legal advice.
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The Thing You Must Give Up
Tweet Share on Facebook May 28, 2009 Comment (1)I have some bad news and some good news. The bad news is, you can’t have it all. The good news is, when you give up an insistence on having it all, you’re way more likely to get what you really want.
We live in an age of, “I want it all, and I want it easy,” yet when we pursue those twin objectives, we often end up with little more than a bag full of wishful thinking. With that in mind, I have an important question for you. What are you willing to sacrifice?
Now, before the idea of sacrificing sends you running the other way, let me give it a little different spin. Another way of asking “What am I willing to sacrifice” is “What choices am I willing to make in order to get there?” In many ways, sacrifice is really about nothing more than choices and priorities. It’s about saying, “Sure I would like to have that, but this is more important to me right now.”
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The Secure Job is Back in Style
Tweet Share on Facebook May 27, 2009 Comment (3)Time was, people chose careers based on potential employability. Anxious mothers urged their sons and daughters to become doctors, engineers, accountants, and teachers “because there’ll always be a need for that kind of work.”
In the go-go nineties and until recently, people worried less about need. The economy felt strong and people had money—or thought they did—for the extras. Making your living as, say, a closet organizer or personal concierge seemed perfectly doable. Few likely paused to reflect that these were needs a very wealthy, comfortable society demands and that if the market stopped heading up, up up, their income could go down, down, down.
Nowadays, many of us have gone back to organizing our own closets and running our own errands. Job hunters are looking to the fields still hiring (or at least the ones not bleeding jobs): education, healthcare, IT, engineering.
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What To Do After You Get Advice
Tweet Share on Facebook May 26, 2009 Comment (2)This is for recent college graduates, networkers, and friends of friends.
You may have already discovered the one universal truth about relationship building, career advancement, and mentoring: People love giving advice. Asking “would you help me?” and “may I get some career advice from you?” nearly always get you to third base. Say it aloud: People love giving advice. It fascinates me to hear there are people who still think otherwise.
OK. Just remember it is not a one-way street. With advice cometh responsibility, saith someone like Socrates, and this is what was meant:
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The Ideal Colleague
Tweet Share on Facebook May 22, 2009 Comment (3)If he made a commitment, he kept it. It might take some wrangling – always polite, of course – to get that promise, but once granted, you never had to check your back.
He was invariably polite and gave others the benefit of the doubt. “You don’t know what people are going through” was one of his truths and he cut a lot of slack in the face of rude behavior.
His ability to drain personalities from disputes was legendary. He always wanted to see if the other side’s position had any merit. He was wary of broad brushes and equally careful of automatically going to the middle ground.
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The Unexpected Wisdom of Being Honest in a Job Interview
Tweet Share on Facebook May 21, 2009 Comment (3)When in a job interview, you should say whatever you think the interviewers want to hear, right? Suck up, even if you don’t really mean it, say whatever it takes to get the job. Right?
Wrong. You don’t want a job where you have to lie to get it. You really don’t. You’ll be miserable, and same for your boss and coworkers.
But, isn’t it a huge risk to speak your actual mind? Yes, but it's less of a risk than taking a job you aren’t suited for. As an example, a friend told me about a job interview she had recently. During the phone interview, she told them she was not interested in pursuing the job any further because the job required her to directly supervise 25 people covering four areas.
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Find Your Positive Inner Pragmatist
Tweet Share on Facebook May 21, 2009 Comment (1)Many of the obstacles to creating a career that lights you up can look completely reasonable on the surface. One is pragmatism.
Not just any kind of pragmatism, mind you. I’m talking about the needlessly negative variety. For so many people, “I’m just being pragmatic” really boils down to, “I have an excuse to say no.”
Under the guise of pragmatism, people have a reason to say, “No, I can’t follow that dream. It’s not realistic. No, I can’t take that step. I have too many demands on my time. No, I can’t do that thing that energizes me, because I have too many practical concerns to think about.”
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How to Rebuild Your Community After a Layoff
Tweet Share on Facebook May 20, 2009 Comment (2)When you lose your job, you lose more than a paycheck. You lose your community.
Many workplaces are like families. Companies encourage this because an emotional attachment to your coworkers and a desire to support them is often what’s behind your “choice” to work nights and weekends for no extra pay.
You may even be one of the increasing number of Americans who has few or no friends outside of work, which makes losing a job an emotional, as well as financial, blow.
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Shiny Pennies in the Workplace
Tweet Share on Facebook May 19, 2009 CommentWe are all easily entranced by new products, services, ideas, applications and…..people. It is hard to resist the temptation of the “new.” Even the answer to the question, “Do you want the La-Z-Boy you see here, or what is behind door no. 2?” almost always gets answered “Door no. 2, Drew!”
Most new things come all wrapped up and pretty, shiny and new--but mostly they're just different. I call it the shiny penny syndrome (not original) and I have made this mistake plenty.
This is how many consultants earn their living. They know pretty much what you tell them, but do a better job of articulating it, organizing it, and then telling you what you must do… later. Still , they look good in suits, mill around smartly, and are awfully impressive. Shiny pennies. Not true? How many studies do you have in your drawer that have not been acted upon…yet?
