Make More of Your Job

It's Your Company, Too.

I’ve talked on this blog before about how often I hear people complain about their jobs. While we all need to vent once in a while, what I’m constantly amazed by is how few of these complainers ever do anything about the problems they’re experiencing.

Much of my life is committed to trying to be the best at what I do everyday and making the most of my job. That doesn’t mean I don’t have complaints. But as someone who cares deeply about my job, my employees and my company, I am also committed to taking action when I think something is amiss. You see, I really do think of it as my company, and if I’m not willing to help things get better when they go awry, who will be?

Companies need employees who are beyond looking out for their own best interests. They should understand that their best interests will be served by watching out for the company. When I started at my current company years ago, we were small - fewer than 100 people. Today we’re more than 20 times as large, the leader of our industry, and expanding globally. Along with that growth come problems. But to me they aren’t the company’s problems, they’re my problems too.

As we grow, it’s natural that we run the risk of starting to act like a "big company." That may not sound like a problem, but in reality, it was acting like an underdog that got us where we are and it could spell disaster for us to lose that spirit. Now is no time to rest on our laurels. To stay number one it’s often important to act like you’re in dead last and are committed to moving up the ranks. So when I see “big company” behavior, I am the first to consider whether it’s smart, strategic or just the easy way out.

Occasionally we make mistakes, but when I notice that mistakes or being made or that we're heading in the wrong direction as a company, I don't have time to sit and gripe. I have to roll up my sleeves and help fix it. It’s always easier to point out, mock or complain about an issue than it is to try and solve one. But if a company has too many complainers and not enough doers, that company will be in real trouble in no time flat.

The closest comparison I can come up with is the person who complains endlessly about the effectiveness of an elected official, gripes about the corruption of government or moans about their taxes, and then doesn’t show up to the polls on voting day.

It doesn’t matter how you are informed you are about politics if you can’t be bothered to speak through your actions by stuffing your opinion into the ballot box. So vent your frustrations about your company, be critical about the actions you see developing around the office; but when something goes wrong, don’t stop at complaint. Do something about it.

After all, it’s your company too.

Office Conflict: The Power of Counting to Ten

When I was a kid, my Mom used to tell me to count to ten if I ever got really angry.  At the time, it seemed like the kind of foolish advice only a parent could give. As an adult, I’ve now learned the power of counting to ten.

As an employee in today’s corporate workplace, there's no doubt that you’ll get into a few skirmishes with your co-workers or superiors during your tenure. The question is how you’ll handle yourself when those situations arise.  When it comes to conflict, there are really only two kinds of people in this world: those who allow conflict to show them in their worst possible light, and those who refuse to allow conflict to mitigate their character.  In my own experience, I've learned that you can avoid becoming the former by taking time to think before you respond during a heightened emotional conflict.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with conflict in the office. In fact, I'd even argue that some conflict may be necessary while you move your career forward. But the type and duration of the conflict can make an enormous difference.  You want people to know that you’re passionate and fiercely committed to your beliefs and that you’ll stand up for those beliefs if pushed to the brink. At the same time, you can’t afford to become known as someone who deals in cheap shots or personal attacks. As human beings, we all have the tendency to say things in the heat of the moment that we’d never say when our tempers or emotions are getting the best of us.  That’s why it’s so important to take a step back, whether it's ten seconds or ten minutes, in order to avoid saying something disastrous.

Unfortunately, the omnipresence of technology in our lives has upped the ante when dealing with office conflict.  With the advent of email, research shows that more and more interpersonal office skirmishes are occurring in writing.  Since you don’t have to say it to the person’s face, writing out what you really think seems easier over email.  It’s amazing how brave (or aggressive) we become with a little digital distance between each other.  The problem is that once the comment is made, you just can’t take it back.   

This is where counting to ten, whether literally or figuratively, is so important in any office conflict. Though it is tempting to have a false sense of bravado when engaging in email conflict, it's best that you take a step back from the conversation for a brief amount of time to gather your thoughts.  If you have a tendency to be a belligerent emailer, you may also want to print out a copy of your email before you send it. Read the email back to yourself and try to consider how you would react to it if you were in the recipient’s shoes.  Additionally, never put in an addressee in the “to” line until you’re sure the email is safe. When all else fails, stop writing emails and pick up the phone. You’re much more likely to respond like a decent human being.

Occasionally someone will get impatient with your momentary silence and will say something like “Well, what do you have to say?” I find that responding “I’m thinking about how to put this” generally buys you all the time you will need.  Engaging your controlled and logical mind by taking a beat also helps you back out of your heightened emotional state, ensuring that your comments are about communicating and not attacking or defending.  Controlling yourself in such conflict can be difficult, but it can be done with work and patience.

Conflict happens, but how it is dealt with can lead to either progress or disaster.  Don’t be afraid to count to ten and run what you’re about to say through your head once to make sure it’s a productive comment and not just a hasty attack.  I’ve tried this countless times in the past few years, and as silly as it sounds, it really works. If you really care about making the most of your job…the next time you get into a battle at work, count to ten or put a little distance between you and the situation before your formulate a response.

Workplace Myths: "If it Ain't Broke, Don't Fix it."

It makes me crazy that today’s workplace is so chock full of catch phrases and cliches.  Maybe we’ve come so far as a consumer society that we even need marketing phrases to describe our actions and life strategies.  Whatever the cause of this catch-phrase fever, it seems frequent in life that when something seems so simple and sensible, it’s probably wrong, which makes all of these popular cutesy phrases about as safe as a pit of vipers.

A few years ago, I read a management advice book by the present big cheese of the corporate sound-byte set. I was so irritated when he named his introductory chapter “Don't Mess with Success,” discussing openly how he would never let any market condition, corporate board member or peer change his approach to business.  Sure, it may have sold some books. However, the attitude paraphrased by the cliche phrase "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" assures failure at some point down the road. In the real world, a non-adaptive position is a suicide mission.  With the rapid marketplace changes driven by technology and globalization every one of us has to work hard to stay one step ahead.

The danger of phrases like "don't mess with success" or “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” is that they sound so logical. Yet lurking behind that catchy and clever façade is a career killer.

To get a real-world perspective on the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” debate, just take a look at some of the businesses that were once powerful leaders in their industries, working under completely “unbroken” business models, and failed to evolve until it was too late.  It doesn’t take long looking at the automotive, airline or media industries to realize that if you wait until you must take innovative action, you may be signing your own death certificate.

The truth is, today’s business world is a fast-paced, constantly changing space. If you’re not constantly innovating, it’s only a matter of time until you’ll be left behind.  Assuming that because it “ain’t broke” you should leave it alone is a mistake.  You may not need to fix it, but you need to get to work immediately on a newer model.

Today’s business climate needs leaders who realize that what works today is almost guaranteed not to work tomorrow.  If your business approach isn’t changing, your results probably will -- and not for the better.  The next time someone tells you they don’t want to change something, because it “ain't broke” today, do yourself a favor and send them to work for a competitor.

Working Smart, Working Hard

In the past few years, there has been a lot of attention paid to the concept of working smarter rather than working harder.  Unfortunately, as with many workplace trends, the pendulum seems to have swung a bit too far towards "smarter" and we’ve started to miss the forest for the trees.  I think it’s time to remind ourselves that we can work smart and still work hard.

Let’s say you have a job where you need to stack ten piles of wood a day in order to get paid.  The "work smart" strategy would tell you that it was worth your time to carefully stack your wood, make sure the piles each met your employment criteria and to do the work at a pace you could sustain.  In this example, running back and forth from pile to pile quickly might get the job done, but you could just as easily become worn out or injured.  By taking the time to create a system, you might be able to work out a system that would allow you to stack all ten piles in half the time. That would be working smarter; the question is, however, would that be working harder?

In our all-consuming quest to work smart we seem to have forgotten that if we can find a way to stack that wood in half the time, a good, committed employee would end the day with 20 piles, not 10.  Working smart doesn’t mean we should do less than we’re capable of, working smart should be a key to open up the lock on our full potential.

Today’s business world is highly competitive. With globalization and emerging technology putting all of us in a position where we need to prove our effectiveness daily,  each of us should strive to eliminate extra steps or low-return tasks in our working lives. That’s working smart. But we will also have to commit ourselves to working as hard as we can once we’ve streamlined our job.

It takes working both smart and working hard to raise your productivity higher than anyone might have thought possible.  That’s how people get raises and promotions - by helping to take the business to the next level.  Too many people today have committed themselves to working smart in an effort to avoid working hard.  That might let you get the bare minimum accomplished with less effort and stress, but it will hardly help you drive your career in the long term.

I am as strong a believer as anyone in the idea of finding intelligent and innovative ways to get the job done, but only to allow us to do more. If you’ve found a way to get your job done in less time or with less effort but you’re still doing the same amount as before, quit congratulating yourself.  The truth is, you aren’t “working smart," you’re just being lazy.

Stress: How Much is Too Much?

I don’t know about you, but I for one am sick and tired of the media telling me how stressful life has become  I agree that living a life that is always in flux can get to you, and the constant pressure of today’s workplace can be enough to burn people out, but not all stress is a bad thing.

Whoever coined the phrase “no pain, no gain” knew what they were talking about, because most of us improve most when under pressure.  Just as building a muscle requires you to push it to the point of exertion, growth in your job and life requires a certain amount of time spent outside your comfort zone.  The key to using stress to your advantage is learning to keep it in balance.  The right amount of stress will help you optimize your growth, but it’s easy to get too far to one side or the other and mitigate your effectiveness.

If you’re in a job where you’re never caught up and constantly in panic mode, you probably lack the down time to learn from your choices and analyze your path.  Similarly, a job that puts little pressure on you and keeps you in a comfort zone will probably keep you from becoming great at what you do. Somewhere in the middle, though, is the sweet spot where stress keeps you motivated and alert, but doesn’t crush your energy or spirit.  Here are some keys to setting an appropriate stress level for your career.

• There should be peaks and valleys in your workload – If you’re in a job where you are constantly capable of pacing your tasks evenly, the job probably isn’t challenging you. However, if you don’t ever have a slow period, your stress level is likely too high to promote time for regeneration, growth, and learning. Either of these situations mean it’s probably time to discuss your workload with your supervisor.  If your boss isn’t open to helping you balance the level of challenge in your daily life, you may need to move on.
• You should have both wins and losses on the job – If it’s been awhile since you’ve screwed up a project at work, you’re probably under-stressed. It’s a well-documented fact that we learn more from our failures than our successes, so we should all hit a snag every once in a while.  A job or supervisor that makes you constantly feel like you’re losing, however, is just plain unhealthy.  If you can’t ever win, there’s a good chance the job is a lousy fit.
• The company’s performance should impact your stress level – If you’re in a job where you don’t feel that you have “skin in the game,” it’s probably not great for your development.  If you don't feel some sort of personal impact when your business wins or loses, go where you will feel that impact.

Wrong Job?

What I’m about to say may sound incredibly impatient, preternaturally inconsiderate or at the very least brutally intolerant. But if you’re one of those people who is constantly complaining about your job, do us all a favor: either do something about it or shut up!

I’m constantly amazed by the sheer volume of American workers who have nothing positive to say about their jobs, yet aren’t even in the market for a new one.  In any other area of life, chronic complaints about a situation without any action to improve it wouldn't be looked upon favorably. For some reason, complaining about our jobs seems to have become the acceptable norm. As a culture we constantly avoid the opportunity to better our lives because we’re afraid of the unknown.  Sure, changing jobs can be scary, but is it really scarier than a lifetime of being under-compensated, under-appreciated and under-utilized?

Think of the energy waisted on complaining about your job on a daily, or even hourly, basis. How about focusing all that energy on changing it?  There are over 125 million jobs in the US alone. If your negative arguments are sound, I guarantee you there is someone out there that would thrilled to both appreciate and compensate your talents. The beauty of working in a free-market society is that if what you do has value, there are always people looking and hoping to employ you.

Trust me, I’ve had bad jobs in my life and I understand completely. How awful it can be to work in a job where you feel unfulfilled or unappreciated, but you have the power to change it!

It’s human nature to be up some days and down others, but if you don’t feel excited to go to work at least 3 out of 5 days a week, you’re either not as talented as you think or you’re in the wrong job.  As the employment market tightens, and employers are more and more desperate to hire quality workers, keeping a job that doesn’t inspire you is nobody’s fault but your own.

Clear Communication Takes Practice

There is an awful lot of advice out there that prescribes “better communication” as a cure for all that ails you.  It goes without saying that people with the ability to communicate effectively with others tend to have an easier time moving up the corporate ladder.  On the flip side, frequent failure to communicate with superiors and coworkers effectively can be a surefire way to take your career off the fast track.

We’ve all heard horror stories of those “career-limiting moves” (such as this one) that someone we know at work has pulled. Too often, miscommunication in the heat of the moment costs someone a raise, promotion, or even a job.  The only way to ensure that you wont suffer a career setback due to miscommunication is to practice, practice, practice.

Your communication skills will be put to the test when you discuss highly sensitive topics.  When the stakes are high, it’s vital to have your voice heard without upsetting anyone else involved.  The next time you’re treading in dangerous waters, take the following steps to practice your communication skills and ensure that the outcome is a positive one.

• Communicate in person – Written language comes without any of the context physical communication gives us, such as tone of voice or body language.  If the topic is highly sensitive, have the discussion live whenever possible.
• Write down your thoughts – One great way to ensure you don’t mis-speak is to script out your thoughts.  Write down what you want to communicate and then reread your thoughts to ensure that they come through clear, respectfully and concise.  Make edits until you’re sure that no one could misinterpret your meaning.
• When in doubt, role play – If you’re unsure how to get your point across, find someone close to you to help you role play the situation a few different ways.  Explain your thoughts and then ask them to repeat your meaning back to you, in different words, until you believe that you’re both saying exactly the same thing.  Sometimes another person's point of view is just what you need to find the hidden weaknesses in your communication skills.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you'll notice that these tips are not unlike some of the tips I give here are not unlike the tips I've given on interviewing skills. Though interviews may not be as emotionally charged as some work conflicts, it is important to remember that both of these situations call for you to be at your best when you are trying to express yourself clearly and respectfully.

The Employee Who Cried Wolf

On this blog, the process of being promoted is serious business.  Sometimes vying for career advancement the wrong way can come with serious consequences.  One of the quickest ways to sabotage your upward mobility at work is to become the employee who cried wolf.

A while back, I had a well-liked employee who consistently voiced his desire to take his career to the next level.  This employee was good (not great) at his job, but was so well-liked and committed to the company that there were many people interested in helping him achieve his personal advancement goals.

Over a period of six months, this employee met with nearly a dozen departments to discuss opportunities they might be able to provide him. He kept his manager in the loop about the process and was frank about the fact that he wasn’t necessarily looking to leave immediately. He was, however, getting to the point where he felt he was ready for an additional challenge.

At first the process went well, as the employee was good at networking and was able to easily make connections with colleagues in other departments.  With a reputation as a solid individual, people were excited to speak with him about becoming a part of their team in the future.  Before long, however, the situation turned sour.

At each of these meetings, the employee would show considerable enthusiasm about the department he was meeting with.  He was an optimist and his excitement was genuine, but the other departments consistently took his reaction as proof positive he wanted to be a part of their team when a position opened up. 

Every time a role appeared, however, he declined the offer.  There was always a different reason: not his cup of tea, too risky, not enough upside for him, etc. Unit by unit, he began to burn bridges across the company with groups that felt he had led them down the aisle and left them standing at the alter.

As he continued interviewing around the company, his own employees began to question his loyalty to them.  He interviewed for so many different, unrelated jobs that they began getting the message that he was looking for anything as long as it wasn’t managing them.  Of course, this made them wonder if there was something wrong with them, or the unit they worked for, and the morale began to decline. Before long, the situation reached critical mass. The team he managed deserved a leader who was committed to them and checked into his daily job. In order to salvage the morale of the team, his manager was forced to let him go. 

Despite the fact that this employee needed to move on, his manager still felt the employee was valuable and well-liked and was willing to help him find a new role rather than terminate him from the company. When the word was sent out that this employee needed a new role, there were no takers.  All of the other divisions had been through this process before and felt that now he was willing to look at their job only because he needed it. 

Because this employee had cried wolf so many times before, there was no one left to listen when the situation was serious.  The employee had made the chronic mistake of talking a big game, but never pulling the trigger. In the end, the opportunities had totally dried up.

Nobody wants to be treated as a last resort. Employers want employees that have a desire to work for them, not employees who would merely settle for their role.  If you’re looking to move ahead in your career, don’t become the employee who cried wolf.  It’s important to realize that once you state that you’re ready for a change, the clock starts ticking and time is limited before the goodwill runs out.  When it’s your time to move up, be ready to act decisively, as failure to do so could find you out of a job altogether.

Impressions Matter More than Reality

Recently, I had a difficult meeting with an employee about his image in our organization. This employee is clearly skilled, but many of the people that work with him find him negative and abrasive. I decided that he deserved to know how he was perceived. 

These conversations are never easy, but when I told this particular employee that he was viewed this way by his colleagues, he was taken aback. “I’m not negative at all,” he said. “I’m just honest.” 

I wanted to understand his side of the story, so I asked him to explain his viewpoint to me so I could him help figure out a way to make his situation better.

As he lay out his version of the facts it became clear to me that he was, in fact, misunderstood by his peers. But it was also clear that he misunderstood himself as well. He seemed to believe that as long as he was speaking “the truth” that it shouldn’t matter how he said it or how other people took it.  

I began asking him about some of the comments I had head attributed to him. It turned out that nearly all of them he admitted to saying. The problem was that because he believed the statements were true, that it precluded him from being negative. 

Some of his comments were:

“This was a terrible sales month.”

“You’re not as good as you could be at your job.”

“That client is a real jerk.”

“Some people you just can’t ever please.”

“Why go the extra mile for a client who won’t appreciate it?” 

As I looked over the list of comments, I understood his viewpoint. Technically, each comment could have been accurate. However, he also needed to understand that every single statement was negative and could be viewed as a complaint. Just because a statement it true doesn’t mean that it is productive. 

I asked him to consider what he would think of me if, upon our first meeting, I said “My view of the world is that the majority of people live below the poverty line, most governments are more concerned with making money than caring for their people, and that for most people in the world things are never going to get better.”  

Without hesitation, he said he would think I was a terrible pessimist. I pointed out to him that all of the information in my statement could technically be true and that the fact that my statement was honest didn’t keep it from being negative or pessimistic. I may have been speaking “facts,” but I asked him if he would want to be around me if that were really the way I spoke all of the time. A look of recognition finally hit his face. 

The truth is, in life and in your career, how people perceive your words and actions makes a much bigger impact on your future than you make think. An incredibly honest or truthful person who comments exclusively when things are negative or depressing will still be perceived as a source of negative energy.  

If you’re looking to build your career, it’s important to be aware not only of what you’re saying or doing, but also of how people are reacting to you. While it is sometimes vital to speak uncomfortable truths, you should still focus on making your comments balanced, tactful and productive. 

Here are some simple tips to help you avoid misperception. 

• If honesty and candor are a large part of your personality, make sure you are honest and candid about positive things as well. Often, the person who says “that meeting was boring” never mentions anything when the meeting was fantastic.
• Only bring up negative or incendiary topics when you have a suggestion or solution to offer. “That meeting wasn’t very exciting. Maybe it would have been better with visual aids” isn’t a great thing to hear, but you will be perceived as wanting to help improve, not as a complainer.
• If you’re planning on having a difficult conversation with someone, write out your thoughts beforehand and read through them considering how they may sound. If you have a tendency to be misunderstood, have a trusted friend or coworker look over your points.
• When you think you’ve been misunderstood, be the first to bring it up. A simple “I’m afraid I came off in a way I didn’t intend to” can go a long way to restoring your image.

 

The Politics of Email

Many of you are working to advance your careers. Whether that means work toward a pay raise, an increase in productivity or a promotion, it will be necessary to improve your skill set and bring more to the table to achieve your goal. One incredibly quick way to begin changing your image in the workplace is to take a long hard look at your use of email. 

In our modern world, our ability to instantly respond via email to a multitude of messages is a great time saver and can be a real blessing. Unfortunately, along with the upside comes the potential for awful career mistakes and blatant miscommunication. 

We’ve all heard our fair share of e-mail horror stories, of the guy that accidentally emailed the boss or the client with a snippy comment meant for a friend or the poor soul who accidentally hit “reply to all” on an company-wide email. The immediacy of the format allows us to make mistakes we would never let happen if we would just slowed down and checked our work. 

On top of the potential for response errors, the fact that email is a two-dimensional communication method also leaves room for comments to be completely misinterpreted. An email doesn’t come with a tone of voice, facial expressions, or sometimes even punctuation, so people often draw the wrong conclusion about intent when they’re reading. Most of us at some point have had someone read an email and assume that it was confrontational, argumentative or sarcastic when that was not our intent at all. Worse yet, the recipient may not even tell you that they took your email in a negative way, leaving the problem to fester and grow.

However, when used effectively, email can be a powerful communication tool. To make sure that you are using it correctly, try implementing the following steps when communicating via email. 

• Be brief... – The more information you put in an email, the more data there is to be misinterpreted. If the topic is personal, complex or difficult to articulate, pick up the phone.
• ...But take your time – Write your email the same way you would speak in a conversation. None of us would just speak everything that came to our mind as fast as we could get it out in a normal discussion, and yet many of us write emails furiously fast, cramming in sentence after sentence with little thought. Separate your thoughts with paragraphs and try to make your points easy to understand. No one likes reading a rambling stream of consciousness email and trying to unravel its meaning.
• Use correct grammar – People seem to think that it’s fine to ignore the rules of our language when writing email. While an informal tone may be fine when you’re writing to your friends, in business it can send a message that you’re unprofessional or unskilled. Just because your boss writes you in all lowercase doesn’t mean that you should do the same.
• Proofread your work - Once you’ve finished an email, always proofread and spell check before sending it out. Ask yourself if there’s anything in your email that could be misinterpreted or offensive. If there is, reword it until your intention is crystal clear.
• If you can do it live, do it live - Our modern workplace is already impersonal enough. If you have the time or ability to communicate your ideas in person or over the phone, do so. Speaking to a person or group live is always an opportunity to build relationships and network. Writing an email is not.