Improve your chances of promotion and success on the job, starting today.
Some employees spend years getting a single promotion, while others zoom their way up the ladder of success. What does one have the other doesn’t? Better technical skills? Better soft skills?
Because success in your career is an all-important component of your future happiness, it’s worth taking a look at those questions. The pace of your success partly depends on your understanding of office politics and human nature.
No matter where you are in your career path, there’s always room for improvement.
Success Tips to Boost Your Career
Here are a few tips you can implement immediately to fast track your career. These concepts worked so well for me that they yielded single raises of as much as 25% in the corporate world. These principles work.
Show some positive attitude savvy! That’s probably the most important thing you can do besides showing up for work every day. Never grumble about your pay, your hours, or anything else. Griping never won anyone a raise. Never criticize your boss, or any senior manager. Don’t moan about circumstances at your office. If there are things you don’t like, decide whether you can live with the angst or not. Should I go or should I stay? Make a list of pros and cons.
Maybe you have an idea that you can turn into something great. Rick Smith wrote about how he did just that in this article in Business Week: “Take Your Career from Good to Great.” Ask yourself if you’re in the right environment to bloom.
When I was in my 20s, I changed jobs 5 times in 5 years. I worked diligently and was a model employee. I gave every company a year to promote me; if not, I moved on. But always, I was a positive person. I quadrupled my salary in 4 years’ time.
Dress Up to Move Up the Corporate Ladder
Look at the image you’re creating. Are you a slob who throws yourself together in 10 minutes in the morning? Don’t be surprised if you’re passed over for promotions. People who are well dressed and well groomed get respect in the office. That should come as no big surprise. Look at our obsession with health, fitness and beauty. Dress up to move up is more than a cute saying. Do the most you can with what nature gave you.
Build solid relationships. Work on building positive, personal relationships with all staff members and colleagues. No matter how much energy, initiative or smarts you have, if co-workers and bosses in the office detest you, you’ll likely never see the inside of executive team meetings. The idea is collaboration, not competition. Be considerate. It sounds hokey, but the Golden Rule fits in the workplace quite well.
Analyze the communication method your boss prefers: telephone, email or face-to face contact. Study that communication style and mirror it. Examine how your boss makes decisions. Become your boss’s trusted ally.
Meet regularly. Ask him/her: “Are there ways in which I should be showing more initiative?” Take as much responsibility off them as possible. Do anything you can to make their life easier … could be something as simple as offering to bring back a sandwich for lunch. The idea is not so much schmoozing as showing basic common courtesies to someone you care about.
Successful People Set Themselves Apart
Distinguish yourself. Don’t hang around at the coffee bar constantly making idle chatter. Be careful not to spread vivid details about personal matters regarding your family or fondest dreams. Very few co-workers can be trusted with that kind of information; it’s too tempting to make it a subject of gossip. It also makes it difficult once you are promoted and those same individuals work for you, if they know every intimate facet of your life.
Distinguish yourself also by having a sense of urgency about the way you move your body. Walk briskly; carry things with you. Move crisply. You’re someone with a mission and a purpose! Success seminars teach people to imagine they have all they envision in terms of money and accomplishments, then to interact with others as if it were all true. This builds huge self confidence from inside out. People are drawn to those who exude self confidence.
Best Success Advice
Your career status will affect your earnings, your ego, your accomplishments, your social contacts and even the attraction (or retention) of a terrific life’s mate! If you’re not satisfied with raises, promotions and results you’ve been getting at work, perhaps you should change the way you think and the way you act.
Your success or lack thereof ultimately depends on you. You are the CEO of your own corporation and no one has a more vested interested in the outcome of your career than you do. Do everything possible to have maximum career advantage.
About author:
Teresa Brashear grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from California State University. She is a mom, a HR manager at an IT company, and a successful writer at ResumeBros.com. She loves to spend time working in the garden, learning French and Chinese, and playing volleyball.
