Work, success, and meaning at every stage of your career
Building skills on the job
As with all things in life, being successful at work is a much smoother process when you ask for guidance from someone who has already been successful. The wisdom and experience of a mentor is an invaluable tool for anyone who wants to avoid making rookie mistakes while climbing the professional ladder.
Have you ever wished that there were a magic button you could push to get through to someone? You’d be in the middle of a difficult and frustrating conversation, where nothing was clicking, and suddenly, with one touch, your message would come across and you can hear and be heard. That button might be closer than you think.
Fairness is a concept that is elemental in business; it’s the presumption that makes commerce and workplace transactions possible. We expect fair pay, a fair price, a fair offer, fair treatment and fair trade. But what happens when something is not fair?
Gino goes on to say that anonymity is akin to darkness, and that may explain the concepts of trolling on the internet, heckling from the back of the room, and anonymous poison pen letters to the boss. When people feel that they can’t be seen, they change their behavior, and they feel free to do and say things they would never do face to face.
In Who Says It’s a Man’s World, Bennington describes her struggle between ambition – wanting to achieve the lofty goals she set for herself – and gratitude, living and appreciating the wonderful life she’d built. For much of her life, she felt harried and miserable, always chasing happiness that seemed to reside somewhere in the future. She finally decided that the only thing that mattered was this moment, right now.
Emily Bennington describes herself as a career author, speaker and space invader. Not the kind with ray guns (although, to be fair, I didn’t ask to see them, so she may be that kind, too.) She’s talking about what Stephen Covey referred to in his writing: “between stimulus and response there is a space, and it’s in that space you choose how you wish to respond.”
A student in my executive communications class is a well-spoken but introverted professional who works for a large healthcare organization. She’s been working hard on her public speaking skills, and it’s beginning to pay off for her career.
Every office has at least one: the worker who spends most of her working hours whining about how bad things are. And not just about work (at least the whining would be relevant.) She whines about her family, her kids, her commute, the cashier at the grocery store last night… the list seems endless. If she just spent as much time doing her work as she does complaining about it, she’d have been promoted to director by now.
“Do what you love and the money will follow.”
How often have you heard advice like this? Find work that you are passionate about, and the rest of your career – and possibly, your life – will fall into place.
Here is my new mantra for 2013: Expect nothing. Welcome everything.
Your Work, Your Way 