We live in a world where overly qualified candidates are a dime a dozen and your chances of landing a good job are one in a billion. But what if you’ve landed the perfect job and are having trouble maintaining your performance or image?
Here are six tips to survive the corporate world:
6. Be Nice. Yes, be nice to everyone, from the office boy to the CEO
Ever wonder why all multinationals are currently evaluating people not only based on business objectives but also on “competencies” or “behaviors”? It’s simply because experience and skill are easily acquired. Unfortunately, your attitude is what leaves an impression.
CEOs and directors of multi-billion dollar industries are now pushing managers to hire “attitude” and not “skill.” I’m not saying that you should kiss ass, but a smile goes a long way and so does a frequent “Good Morning.”
5. Do what you weren’t hired to do
Be resourceful, creative and do what you weren’t hired to do. A good example was when Google started up the “20 percent time” initiative. To cut a long story short, any employee would take a day’s worth in time from his typical work week and come up with a kick-ass project to work on. And it was a hit!
As a result of this great idea, Google came up with lots of neat stuff that even Google doesn’t need anymore. Piece of advice: Finish your tasks, objectives and what you were hired to do, and then come up with the idea that will make people actually KNOW YOU.
4. First Impressions Last
Get in, dominate like you’ve never before but do not speak too early. Try to observe how others are behaving and understand what language they’re speaking. Even if it takes you months or a year, trust me: Once you start talking, they will judge you, and it’ll be pretty difficult to change their opinion of you.
3. Do not over-promise, be realistic
It’s great to be ambitious, and it’s wonderful that you want to prove yourself worthy of the position you’re in, but nothing kills a reputation in an organization more than over-promising.
You need to learn realistically how to set expectations and learn when to be honest. Do not mix trying to please your stakeholders with over-promising; it will backfire!
2. Find a sponsor
People are aggressive when it boils down to competition, and the bigger the cake, the more aggressive they get. The minute you walk into the company, they start asking questions about who you are, if you’re competent at what you do, whether you’re nice or not…
It’s very crucial that you find someone at some point to talk you up and sponsor you as a qualified employee. We live in a society where word spreads around quicker than wildfire, so try to be smart about it and pick someone who is well established in the organization and has a credible opinion.
1. Apologize when and where it’s due
Learn to pick your fights, nobody likes a troublemaker. We are all humans, and errors are sooner or later bound to occur. You need to understand that admitting your mistakes will not make you seem incompetent.
On the contrary, it will reflect that you are a dependable person who takes full responsibility for your mistakes. So whenever the poop hits the fan, take a bullet! It’ll do you good, I promise!
WE SAID THIS: Happy working!
