Become More Productive and Successful by Rough Guider (ebook reader computer .txt) 📖

playing with the 5-a-side team at lunchtimes or perhaps taking your team for a coffee more often?

 

Would you enjoy introducing more out of work activities for the team?

 

My advice to you, particularly if you are not happy in your current role but have no intention of moving on to another role or career, is to build as many of these (the ones that you like) into your role.  Some will lend themselves much more easily than others but I challenge you not to find at least 2 to 3 things that can help lighten up your day.

 

When one of your team members moves to another organization and thanks you for being such an amazing mentor (perhaps saying you’re the best manager they have ever had) what would that mean to you?  If perhaps a charity writes to you to thank you for all the skills you have brought to their business and how it has benefited those in need, how valuable would that make you feel?

 

So, if this is relevant to you, please take the time to look at your current work situation and ensure that you look after yourself for a change.  You should of course discuss this with your manager to see whether they can also help to introduce additional enjoyment to your work-life.

Actively managing your career

What often comes as a surprise to many people is that in many situations you have great scope to manage your career.  Waiting year after year for your boss to give you that promotion (that never comes) with the saving grace being your freedom to curse them in private and (in some cases, and unadvisedly) in public, is not a great place to be.  So if you feel that your career is not being managed well by others (or even if it is) there is a lot that you can do to better your cause.  These are:

 

Take credit for the things you have done.  Don’t show off.  Simply be clear and transparent about your accomplishments and communicate them.

 

Have a clear plan of where you want to be career-wise in (say) 5 years.  Note down the steps, perhaps in 6 month tranches, that you must take to get there and monitor that your career is tracking as required. 

 

Do your core job well.  Remember that if you do your core job well it is a great launch-pad for career advancement.  However, if the basics are not done well you will be continually pegged back and at some point the phrase ‘don’t run before you can walk’ will be uttered and you will feel demoralized.

 

Challenging your pay or status.  This is a really tough one and hence I’m reluctant to provide advice as each situation is different as is every boss.  However, I believe that a good rule is not to challenge your pay or status multiple times.  I think that it is appropriate to question your level of compensation and/or your status if it is clear to you that you are punching well above your weight and that compared to your peers you are not being treated fairly.  A good manager will try to pre-empt such conversations to ensure that you are fairly rewarded throughout your career but that is not always possible as the purse strings are often outside their control.  If you make a play for (say) an increased base salary make sure that you are confident in the value you bring the business.  If your boss says “no” you are left in an awkward situation.  Your boss knows that you may now be upset (and may rightly or wrongly perceive that you are now less motivated than before the request was made) which could affect your position going forward.  However, if it is clear that you add value and that you are not being properly compensated for what you do a conversation may be worthwhile.  Make the conversation friendly, be tactful and make sure you don’t lose the respect of your manager.  If you are fortunate enough to receive a pay rise or promotion remember that your boss may have gone out on a limb to get this for you so thank them as appropriate.   The thing to remember is that you can’t and shouldn’t play this game too often.  Your boss may not thank you for repeating this exercise each year.   However, my advice is to tread carefully, show respect and assess the situation carefully.  Perhaps lobby some trustworthy confidants.  Always remember that if your boss doesn’t think you merit a pay increase or change in status or already believes that you are paid more than market rates, this could be the beginning of the end for you in that business.

 

Don’t over expose yourself.  One piece of advice I received many moons ago, which has proven to be of such value, is the notion that you shouldn’t take on too many things at one time.  In other words it is far better to be remembered for doing one thing really well than to be remembered for doing five things really badly.  The tip here is not to become overly ambitious and take too many projects or tasks on if there is a reasonable chance that you will sink under all the workload.  This doesn’t of course mean that you shouldn’t put yourself forward for juicy project work or tasks of specific interest to you, but rather to make wise choices and go for those that you either enjoy (if that is more important to you) and/or those that help demonstrate the value you add to the business.  Take on too many and you could fail at all of them, including the ones that you would otherwise succeed at hands down.

 

Delegation.  I was debating whether to place this topic under ‘Managing Staff’ or ‘Actively managing your career’ as it fits equally well under both categories.  To be clear:

 

By delegating work to your team they will learn new tasks and procedures and grow faster as individuals from a career development point of view.   I have witnessed time and again managers trying to take on the full work-load of their teams (often individuals who have been appointed as managers for the first time in their career).  After all, they may have done the work themselves beforehand and can certainly perform it faster and more efficiently than their staff.  Of course the issue here is that by not delegating you are limiting the chances of your team reaching their full potential.  Perhaps you are worried about losing your job, which leads me on to the next point.

 

By delegating to your team, training them up on the necessary tasks and ensuring that they develop the required skills, you are not only doing what’s right for them (so you have a clear conscience) but you are also investing for the future.  It shouldn’t be that long, if they are right for the role and you are training them effectively, for them to be as good as you were, or at least on a clear trajectory to get to that state.  As their level of competence and speed, increases you acquire more time to dedicate your efforts to higher level tasks.  As a result you can go to your boss and ask for more interesting work to perform.  Not only should your boss recognize that you have done a good job with staff development, they should also be able to pass on to you some of their work, which should free up their time.  Everyone’s a winner!  Going back a few years from now, a senior colleague of mine summarized this approach with the phrase “You should always try to delegate yourself out of a job”.  That is, once you land a new role, train up your team to take on your workload so that you can move onto the next level, to some extent underwriting your chances of promotion.

 

Consider the Politics game (see later).

 

Relative performance considerations.  Have you ever wondered why a glittering career within an organization suddenly falters without your effort, output or achievements going off track?  Well, this can sometimes happen when you least expect it and it often appears to fall outside your control.  Like with a 100 meter sprint or some exams, how good you are may not be as important as how good the competition is.  In the workplace you may have been destined for a particular role, but then someone arrives who has more experience, more gravitas and better political skills ‘forcing’ themselves into prime candidate position.  To counter this, work hard at all the elements in this book.  By becoming stronger at all these ‘rough guide’ skills I am confident that the person who gains the competitive advantage will be you.

 

Managing egos.  There is a fine balance between speaking your mind and damaging your career by upsetting one of the power bases within the company.  Being open, honest and frank may be your natural approach and arguably lends itself far better to certain functions (Finance, Facilities Management, Operations and IT).  However, whether you are within these departments or not it is very important to understand how to approach someone in a position of power and bring up what could be a sensitive or controversial issue.  It’s not hard to raise an issue with someone senior, expecting them to see your frankness as a positive skill, but if they don’t take kindly to your ‘interference’ they may react in an adverse manner, either straight away or over the fullness of time.  One example I know about, is of a peer (in a senior position) whose ideas were effectively railroaded in a meeting by their boss.  Perhaps they hadn’t briefed their boss appropriately beforehand or truly had ideas that didn’t merit further discussion.  Whatever the realities, the individual in question went to see their boss later and stated that they didn’t appreciate being ‘bullied’ and that their confidence had been knocked as a result.  Their boss duly apologized but then went on to add that the individual lacked gravitas for bringing the matter up and that they should try to find some course to go on that would improve both their maturity and credibility.  That individual didn’t last much longer at the company.  They had effectively been told that they didn’t have what it took to rise through the ranks of the organization.  So tread carefully, think through any sensitive or contentious issues before raising them.  Make sure that your actions don’t backfire on you.  Like yourself you boss has an ego and won’t want to be reprimanded.

 

Build a strong brand for yourself (see later)

 

Be treated as you want to be treated.  There is a phrase that ‘behavior breeds behavior’.  If you are petulant, moody, immature and unsupportive of your boss don’t expect them to treat you with a high level of respect and treat you as someone with credibility and gravitas.  You should act in the manner that you wish to be treated.  If you exude confidence (not arrogance of course), maturity and fair judgment, your boss is likely to view you as a person that possesses such qualities.  So, before you complain about the way your boss treats you, have an honest and diligent review of self and establish whether there is anything you can do to rectify the situation on a stand-alone basis.  You may be surprised about how much you can sway their opinion by changing your persona.

How to write

This is the easiest thing to get right but the most common thing to get wrong.  I see so many emails, letters and memos that have simple but yet distracting errors in them.  Yes, this is one of my pet dislikes and I regularly remind my staff to do that one important thing - read through your communication before you communicate it.

 

It’s not that any of us are that unintelligent that we would deliberately write glaring errors such as ‘we have did very well on the project’.  It’s just that we originally wrote ‘we have done very well