Career Essentials

Recently read an abstract of a book. Below are some notes and would like to share with friends here.

People approach their career goals with different styles such as, responders, explores, contributors, assimilators, visionaries, analyzers, enhancers, and so on. Are we happy with some of these defining characteristics staying in our style? If we do not want them to be in our style, we can take actions on them and improve.

Optimize our Outlook

A positive demeanor goes a long way in the work world. Optimists radiate helpfulness and confidence and willingly take on tough challenges. When we are upbeat, our colleagues and the people around us enjoy our energy and can-do attitude. How we “dress, stand, walk and talk” communicate our attitude to others. Positive attitudes vibrate throughout our team. Positive attitudes are core factors to successful careers and personal lives.

Put Ourselves in Charge

Take ownership of what we do, big or small. A lot of times our managers do not know details of the work we do and make decisions or see our work by impression, thus getting involved and being part of decision making process is important. One important thing here is that our career development almost entirely depends on how we navigate the journey. Every couple of weeks or every month spending a couple of hours looking at our progress and review our short term and long term career goals is definitely a good idea.

Learn from everyone

Share experience and opinions and interact with others, and learn from others. Identify purpose of conversations and response accordingly. Be authentic and willing to share our own knowledge and opinions even feelings. Digest and even take advantage of other’s lessons learned. As a fact learning from others usually is learning something very valuable but no cost.

Relate to Anyone

Be open and connected with people. Once started doing so you will find you are becoming more welcome. Personal contact, show interests to others’ personal life, personal traits. At a lot of times we do not have to be judgmental and what we need to do is to think the world is big and things happens in different ways and tell ourselves why we have to want others take our opinions.

Disentangle Thoughts

Focus, clarify and organize out thought processes, so we can deal with work issues efficiently and make sound decisions. Strategies to solve work place problems:

1. Define the problem

2. Generate and research solutions

3. Choose a solution

4. Implement the solution

5. Evaluate the results

Exceed Expectations

To advance our career, we must not only meet expectations, but also surpass them. Begin by using good work practices, managing time and organize workload. Understand exactly the objectives and the expectation.

Thrive in Uncertainty

The world is constantly in flux. If we fail to adapt import changes, we can be quickly falling behind. However, if we anticipate trends and remain open to change, we will be poised for success. To develop a forward-looking mind-set, view situations from several perspectives and consider various possible outcomes. To cope with uncertainty, ask:” What can I do better understand this situation?” “How might this change improve my life?” and “How might this change enhance my personal growth?” Take courage to take risk when necessary.

Promote our progress

At a lot of times excellent work does not speak itself. In a tactful way, let people know our performance. Take opportunities to share our success with others and let others know we do have higher career goals.