101 Ways to Stand Out at Work: How to Get the Recognition and Rewards You Deserve

101 WAY TO

STAND OUT

AT WORK

ARTHUR D. ROSENBERG

Copyright © 2009 by Arthur D. Rosenberg

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To Catherine, my partner in life.

Learning from one’s own mistakes is a sign of some intelligence. Wisdom—born of intellect and experience—is about learning from the mistakes of others. For the countless mistakes I have been privileged to witness, enabling me to learn without the requirement of duplication (and to those who made them), I express my gratitude.

Contents

About the Author

Introduction

Chapter 1: Choose a Career Wisely

1. Dream the possible dream

2. Map out your career path

3. Don’t settle for what you don’t really want

Chapter 2: Control Your Image

4. Conquer yourself and Everest will lie at your feet

5. Tune in to the world outside your head

6. It’s not just who you know, but how well you get along with them

7. When you ask a question, be sure to listen to the answer

8. The best way to interest people in you is to pay attention to them

Chapter 3: Communicate Effectively

9. Effective communication can eliminate the majority of management problems

10. Keep your goal in sight, or your career may disappear

11. Strike before the iron melts

12. Listen in order to understand

13. Written records outlive careers

Chapter 4: Practice Self-Promotion

14. You are your most precious asset

15. Focus on what the other guy wants and expects

16. Being subject to influence is the key to influencing others

17. If you want it, ask for it

Chapter 5: Improve Your Leadership Skills

18. Manage things, lead people

19. Leading is about us, not me

20. The boss says, Do it!; the leader says, Let’s do it!

21. Give praise, take blame

22. Question and encourage

Chapter 6: Use Power and Control Wisely

23. Empower yourself through an awareness of the forces around you

24. Use the least of what you’ve got to get the most of what you want

25. The more you know, the more power you can bring to bear

26. Manage power through control

27. Self-control is applying to yourself the same principles and techniques you impose on others

Chapter 7: Know Which Tools to Develop

28. Use ’em or lose ’em

29. Initiative is the single most important factor in being regarded as an asset

30. Entrepreneurs are those who pick up what others fail to notice

31. Half your skills become obsolete every four to six years, and the clock is ticking

32. Tell yourself the truth, and make an effort to listen

Chapter 8: Maintain Your Integrity and Discretion

33. If you know it’s wrong, don’t do it; if you think it’s wrong, reflect upon it carefully

34. Be worthy of your trust

35. Life is short; spend your time with people you like

Chapter 9: Preserve Your Health

36. Don’t wait until you’re too ill to appreciate your greatest asset

37. Stress is a standing invitation that need not be accepted

38. Learn to manage stress before it mangles you

39. Accepting criticism can be valuable, even when it isn’t valid

40. A healthy mind needs a healthy place to live

Chapter 10: Understand Your Objectives, Goals, and Priorities

41. Objectives provide your career with a sense of purpose

42. Establish goals you will be proud to achieve

43. To get somewhere you must first know where you are

44. Whatever got you here may not get you any further

45. Reach for the stars and explore the limits of your potential, but don’t target the unattainable

46. Prioritize, or spin your wheels

47. Being there is only a stop along the way to somewhere else

Chapter 11: Learn from Mistakes

48. Don’t hesitate to abandon your faults

49. If it’s broken, fix it

50. Never blame, never complain

51. Intelligence is learning from your own mistakes; wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others

Chapter 12: Fit Into the Corporate Culture

52. The opposite of fitting in is sticking out

53. Keep your eyes open—things are never what they seem at first

54. Unwritten laws need to be carefully read

55. To compete effectively, learn the rules better than everybody else

56. The things you allow to start badly are likely to end the same way

57. When opportunity knocks, open your door

Chapter 13: Adjust to Change

58. Ready or not, the future is coming

59. Never get too comfortable

60. Focus on the disparity between what can and cannot be changed

61. Ideas that worked in the past may not apply to current issues

62. All habits can be changed

63. Once you’ve recognized the need for change, accept it as a challenge

Chapter 14: Decide Whether to Stay or Leave

64. Read the handwriting on the wall—every day!

65. Tune in to the information network

66. Use your motivation to activate your talent

67. Marketable skills are the only job security you can count on

68. Be a high achiever without overreaching

Chapter 15: Manage Your Time and Timing

69. Don’t wait too long to take advantage of an opportunity

70. Time your efforts; timing isn’t everything, but nothing works without it

71. You can’t afford to waste time—the amount of time you’re born with is all you get

72. Never agree to unreasonable deadlines, and make sure to meet the ones you do accept

Chapter 16: Be Decisive

73. Let he who would move the world first move himself.—Confucius

74. Beware alternatives to wise decisions

75. Make timely decisions—procrastination multiplies the risk factor

76. A positive self-image promotes courage by creating an expectation of success

77. The journey of a thousand miles begins beneath one’s feet.—Lao-Tzu

Chapter 17: Make the Right Move

78. Turning down an assignment can turn off the boss

79. Justify your highest expectations of yourself

80. Be an asset

81. Doing something well is a waste of time if it isn’t worth doing

82. Careers extend beyond the office

83. Offer a convincing reason for refusing to relocate if you want to keep your job

84. It’s easier to ask for what you want right now than to refuse what you don’t want later

Chapter 18: Do Your Homework

85. Make career planning a part of every day

86. A bad plan is better than no plan, because it can be improved

87. Focus on the objective first, and how to achieve it second

88. Before investing in a brave new world, collect everything worth saving from this one

89. The better you prepare, the luckier you’ll be

90. If at first you don’t succeed, look for a better way to do it

Chapter 19: Network to Success

91. There are people out there who know things you don’t

92. Don’t waste your time, or theirs

93. Most professional positions are found through networking

94. Networking pays off your investment with interest

95. Know your purpose, and communicate it clearly

Chapter 20: Control Your Interviews

96. Poor interviews may leave you unemployed

97. Answer honestly and volunteer nothing

98. Preparation will increase your confidence

99. Prepare a game plan

100. Anticipate obvious questions

101. No job is worth misrepresenting yourself

Appendix

About the Author

Arthur Rosenberg is a consultant based in the New York–New Jersey area. He specializes in business analysis, project management, documentation, corporate communications, and training. He has influenced the career development of hundreds of individuals at more than forty of the top corporate and educational institutions. He also gives career-related seminars to professional and minority groups.

Introduction

Career choices are opportunities that grow from what we do—or fail to do—and how we do it. External circumstances can damage a profession or industry, but your career will flourish or flounder as a direct result of your decisions and actions. Outside circumstances may inconvenience you, but the essence of your career is really up to you. As simple as that sounds, think about it. I’m willing to bet that on occasion you’ve blamed someone or something else for problems at work: My boss has unrealistic expectations. My coworkers are lazy. The industry I work in is downtrending. While that may be true, you have the power to change your situation!

101 Ways to Stand Out at Work offers a logical, problem-solving approach to building and maintaining a successful career. I believe it’s necessary to identify and understand a challenge in order to arrive at a meaningful solution. Instead of offering airy pep talks (you can do it, go get ’em, and the like), or telling colorful stories about prominent people whose careers bear little relationship to yours, I’ll recommend simple strategies and show you how to customize and apply them in your own situation.

Chapter 1

Choose a Career Wisely

Your career choice is one of the most important decisions you’ll ever make. To make a wise and thoughtful decision, you need to devote a fair amount of time and effort to enable you to pick the best way to spend the years of working hours that lie ahead of you. Career planning can be a complex process, unless you’re one of those people who have always known what you wanted to do as an adult. Breaking the decision down into smaller parts can make it seem more manageable, and the tips in this chapter are designed to help you do just that.

1. Dream the possible dream.

Many career- and life-advice books enthusiastically suggest that anyone can achieve absolutely anything if they want it enough to focus their lives on achieving it. Believe in yourself, they promise, and you can get anything you want. The mind, some state emphatically, is such a powerful instrument, it can deliver to you literally everything you want.

Unfortunately, just believing is not enough to deliver you to the promised land, no matter how intense your conviction. Perhaps a valuable message lies within this concept, but too literal an interpretation is more likely to frustrate than reward your efforts. Let’s try to put this into a realistic and practical perspective.

Myth: If you practice basketball really hard, you’ll make it to the NBA.

Reality: Unless you are among the gifted 1 percent who have the talent to play professionally, practicing will only improve your game a little.

Myth: If you spend hours studying, you can become a brain surgeon.

Reality: Unless you excel at biology and premed classes, you probably won’t make it as a surgeon.

Myth: Believing in yourself can make anything possible.

Reality: Self-belief can help you achieve things you may have thought were out of reach. It will not, however, make you bulletproof.

The message is not that you should limit yourself to what other people tell you about your abilities and limitations, or that you need not devote your best efforts to achieving your dreams. In fact, stretching and extending toward new achievements is an essential part of the growth process throughout your career and life.

Your author was told by his high school Spanish teacher that he would never be any good at languages. Having lived and worked in Europe and the Middle East for several years, he now speaks more than half a dozen languages (including fluent Spanish).

The bottom line: You can probably improve your skills and abilities in most areas if you’re willing to spend the time and make the effort. However, not everyone is endowed with the same natural abilities across the board. Chemical engineering or finance might appear attractive to you at first glance, but be sure those fields match your particular skills and interests before committing your dreams and efforts in those directions.

Years of sweat and sleepless nights may turn you into a mediocre accountant or an above-average insurance salesperson, but think of how successful a systems analyst or graphic artist you might have been if one of these was actually your strongest suit . . . and how much happier!

Are the Hot Jobs Really So Hot?

Each and every year, the experts predict which industries and positions will be hot. Of course, it doesn’t hurt to check them out to see if any of them look appealing, but don’t allow these lists to dictate or limit your choices. While such predictions may be based on valid data, trends and dependencies have a way of changing unpredictably. Who knows if what is hot this season will have cooled off a few years from now?

Just because the outlook for a type of occupation seems full of promise doesn’t mean it’s right for you. A better option is to evaluate your interests, skills, and values. Create a comprehensive career plan to map out your path: Start by choosing a career and finding a job, and then identifying and achieving your longer-term career goals.

2. Map out your career path.

The following outline will get you started creating your career path. Don’t worry—you can change it later when you have learned more about yourself and your potential options. Since no two individuals are exactly alike, you will need to add, delete, and modify areas of particular interest, concern, and relevance to your projected career path.

Self-Assessment

Create a list of the following items:

• Personality: Are you a people person or would you rather work by yourself?

• Interests: We’re talking about work-related activities (such as dealing with numbers, writing, managing, organizing, and public speaking) rather than leisure preferences like golf, dominos, and ballroom dancing.

• Skills: Some of the things you’re good at are likely to parallel your interests.

• Incongruities: Which skills do you lack to support your interests? Can they be improved?

• Values: Over time, it will be difficult to maintain an interest and focus upon pursuits (e.g., programming or sales) that are essentially meaningless or unfulfilling to you.

Matching Options

Make a list of potential career options that match your self-assessment, and then use the following steps to evaluate your choice:

• Verification: Show your lists to a few trusted family members, colleagues, and/or close friends to find out if they generally agree with your self-assessments. Then discuss these and the options you have identified with a career counselor (or two) to get a professional perspective of where you might fit in best and what you might find most rewarding. Keep in mind throughout this process that you are seeking a direction, not necessarily an end result. Chances are your ultimate choice will probably require some practical experience and fine-tuning further down the road.

• Making a Decision: Your initial career decisions may prove long lasting or temporary. (Either way, you’ve got to start somewhere.) Some lucky souls plunk right into careers that appear to have been destined by the fates; most, however, need to experience some trial and error. Inevitably, a few will search on until settling for a livable compromise, or opt out of corporate employment in favor of self-employment.

• Applying the Decision: There are lots of ways to find a job once your initial career decision has been made. College recruiting resources, employment agencies, job advertisements and listings, and networking (see Chapter 19 for more information) are the usual methods. Put your resume out there, prepare for the inevitable job interviews (see Chapter 20), and get some experience under your belt.

• Maintaining Perspective: Read through the remaining 19 chapters in this book to prepare yourself for professional employment in the real world.

3. Don’t settle for what you don’t really want.

Some people seem to know what they want to be while still in grade school; others develop career interests during high school and college. The advantage of making an early career choice is having the time to develop experience and recognition in your chosen field. This is particularly valuable in highly specialized professions like (to name a few) singing, medicine, and astrophysics.

The downside of making an early career choice is growing bored, dead-ending, or burning out (see Chapter 13). These are the potential perils of life at thirty, forty, and beyond bound by decisions formed in your teens. Another consideration is that certain professions periodically fade from favor while others blossom.

If you don’t know what you want to be yet, that’s okay too. It’s better to take your time than to rush to a decision that you’ll later regret. In fact, few of us can say what rivets our attention, or where our interests truly lie, until we’ve had a chance to experience a few options. A close friend, who prefers to remain anonymous, drifted through careers in teaching, translating, educational publishing, and information systems before evolving into his natural vocation as a writer. In retrospect, I may have needed to achieve success at other things, he reflected, to gain enough confidence and courage to face the possibility of failing.

Procrastinating Won’t Get You Anywhere

That said, you can’t afford to avoid making a decision forever. Many people never get around to making and pursuing a conscious career decision, but rather follow family affiliations, social connections, or blind circumstance, and then find themselves in a job they may not like. If you are a procrastinator, this tendency is holding you back.

Try subdividing the things you may be having trouble facing into bite-sized portions and assign them specific due dates. Then empower yourself to get them done on schedule. This is a realistic way to reprogram yourself to becoming more productive. Remember to reward yourself for