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Phone interview scheduled
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shows you the steps you need to take, and what
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The
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advice, links and resources that are easy to understand
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My
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“Learning
is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with
ardor and attended to with diligence.”
Abigail
Adams,
1780
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An e-mail
newsletter designed to transform the way you think about your career…
and to help you face Mondays with a smile!
by Dale Kurow, M.S., Career & Executive Coach
Welcome
new readers, glad to have you with us!
What
a fun time we had in West Palm Beach! We totally missed the blizzard that
dumped 2 feet of snow on the Northeast. At the glorious Orchid Museum
I went nuts taking photos and even got a picture of a hummingbird at rest.
Here is the cutie!
Office
politics is the topic of this month’s feature article. Need to learn
how to thrive despite the histrionics? Read on for tips.
Wishing
you the best of March!
To
Your Success,
Is
your career stuck in neutral? I offer a 30-minute complimentary
session to explore your needs and to determine if we’d like to work
together. Whether you’re trying to survive office politics,
want to be a better manager, or need to figure out your
next career move, I can help. Send me an e-mail at Dale@dalekurow.com
to begin the process!
It’s
your first month in a new position and it’s rougher going than you’d
anticipated. You feel like an outsider and you’re miserable.
Pondering
how this happened, you nostalgically recall how comfortable and well-liked
you felt in your last job.
Not
only do you possess the requisite skills to do well in your new position,
you’ve also built a solid reputation in this field. Yet, you are
floundering. Badly.
It’s
not the actual work that is driving you crazy; you like the work. Even
the long hours are not the problem.
It’s
the emotional undercurrents, gossiping and backstabbing thickening the
air that you find exhausting.
You
can’t seem to find your feet and get traction in your new environment.
And people have started to notice and are making comments.
What
the heck is going on here?
Welcome
to the world of office politics.
Here
are tips to help you survive and thrive:
- Find
a mentor - either inside or outside the company. A mentor
can offer advice, counsel and act as a sounding board. Getting objective,
professional support is crucial.
-
Take notice of who performs well in your company. Observe
their use of language, tone of voice, confidence level, and preparedness.
Learn from their behavior and emulate it.
- Don’t
complain, gossip or join in backstabbing conversations. Kvetching
will get you nowhere.
- Learn
to read the company’s culture. How do people dress and
speak? What is the company’s mission statement? How is it reflected
in the workplace and in the treatment of employees? For example, if
you work for an environmentally-friendly company, don’t brag about
your SUV.
- Form
Strategic Alliances. Make yourself valuable to those with power,
knowledge or tenure. Go out of your way to offer assistance. When you
need help, you’ll have established a network of supporters.
- Think
before you speak or act. One impulsive, off the cuff statement
or act can significantly damage your career. Silence is golden, especially
when you are angry, tired or at a company-sponsored social event.
- Proof
your e-mails for typos and politically incorrect language.
Every message you send is being judged. Make sure you don’t “bury
the lead” in your e-mails. Get to the point quickly and end with
a call to action.
- Request
second-party endorsements. If you’ve performed well in
an assignment or project, asking the manager whom you’ve helped
to pass along words of praise to your boss is a smart thing to do. If
they are willing to put it in writing, better yet.
- Hone
your sense of humor. This can be your ace in the hole! It will
get you through trying times and people will seek out your company.
Learning
to effectively survive office politics is a skill that you perfect with
trial and error. Anytime there are more than 2 people working together,
you can experience tension and conflicting desires. You’ll need
a tool kit of survival techniques. Start practicing now!
Know
someone with an imminent phone interview? Here’s
what one purchaser of my new phone
interview E-Book had to say:
“Until
I read Dale’s E-Book, I never thought to prepare for a phone interview.
I recently had a call from a company on a Sunday evening and was not prepared.
I rescheduled the call, which allowed me to organize notes and myself.
The result is I am going onto the next round of interviews. I think that
if I had not had Dale’s advice, the outcome would not have been
the same. Thanks Dale!” ~ Pam Wenc
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