Making a Good Impression on a New Job is Critical

The impression that you make on your bosses and coworkers when you first start a job has an effect on your future relationship with them.

I worked in a supermarket while I was going to college. Management hired a new employee and it was up to the employees that had been their longer to show all new hires the ropes.

Adopt Your Employer's Goals as Your Own

Do you want to be the most valuable employee possible to your company? If you do, it begins by discovering your  company's goals and adopting them as your own.

You have been hired for a purpose. Regardless of your company, the industry it is in, your level of education or experience, you have been hired to accomplish tasks that benefit the company. You probably took the job to earn a living and provide resources for your family. It is a wonderful thing if you love your job and it gives you a sense of accomplishment other than providing the basic needs of life. Many people, however, work at jobs because of need not because they are fulfilling a sense of calling.

Work is Important

Many people will spend up to 95,000 hours of their lives on the job. Work is not just how we make money, but it also is the source of many of our psychological needs such as the need for significance and fulfillment, and self-esteem. Because work is such an important part of our lives, we should do the best and be the best that we can.

The structure of work is changing, and that affects the way that jobs are organized. Most organizations recognize the need to have a flexible workforce.

Employees Should Strive for Personal Mastery

A previous post covered Peter Senge's conception of a learning organization. Personal Mastery is a major element of a learning organization to which every employee should aspire. Personal Mastery is a phrase used for high levels of the discipline of personal growth and learning.

For a company to continue to grow and be successful, they must be learning organizations. Learning organizations learn only by their individual members learning. Employees that strategically and consistently learn optimize their potential and reach high levels of personal mastery.

Values and Values Congruence

Everyone has values that guide their life and decisions. Values are the principles or the standards of behavior. Values are the judgments of what is important in life. Values are instilled very early in life and are at the very core of what a person stands for.

"You may not be able to influence everyone around you, but you will be able to influence many when you stay true to your values."

The 4 P's of Persuasion

Employees should understand marketing methods. The 4 P's of Persuasion is a framework to formulate persuasive written messages in a sales pitch or when pitching an idea.

The 4 P's are a method of written communication in marketing, advertising and corporate communication. They are a persuasive technique that stresses some critical points; to generate convincing, forceful, powerful, seductive and strong messages.

Three Keys to Success

Success is a goal for everyone and elusive for many. Your future, your family, and your employers are all depending upon you being successful. The interesting thing about success is that when we are successful, everyone around us benefits.

Another thing about success is that everyone has a different idea about what success looks like. What it means to be successful to me may not be the same thing to you. It is important to develop your own definition of success, then write it down. Let it become your personal missions statement.

What is Organizational Culture and Why is it important?

There have been many changes to organizations in the past couple of decades. Many organizations have not kept up with the changes and are operating like a Ford Model-T in an electric-hybrid consumer world. This is seen in the culture of an organization.

In Edgard Schein's book, "Organizational Culture and Leadership," he defines culture of groups as a pattern of shared assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaption and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to problems. In a later publication, he defines organizational culture as the basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be that a group of people are sharing and that determines their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and their overt behavior.

Understanding Power

The essence of leadership is the use of power. Company leaders usually begin as regular employees and most employees eventually reach a place of leadership and power to some degree. It is important to understand from where power comes.

"Power" is a complex and elusive topic to understand. Power was once open and easily recognized. In the modern age, power is often nuanced, covert, and hidden. Good leader's use their power to make others and society a better place, but Lord Acton reminds us that power is easily corrupted. We should all be so lucky to work for servant leaders, but many leaders use their power to manipulate or force their subordinates to action.

It's a Thing! A Learning Organization!

"It's a thing" is a series that highlights concepts that employers and managers use and sometimes evaluate employees with that they may not be aware.

A learning organization is the business term given to a company that facilitates the learning of its members and continuously transforms itself.

Discover and Develop Your Strengths

Good employees proactively develop themselves personally and professionally. It is important to increase knowledge and skills. "Hard skills" are learning specific things such as new computer programs, marketing, accounting, working on cars, laws and regulations (e.g. OSHA, HIPPA), styling hair, medicine, operating machines, etc. "Soft skills" include listening, communicating, managing emotions, time management, leadership, team building, empathy, self-motivation, goal setting, etc. Developing soft skills are as important as developing hard skills.

Many companies have development programs. Most development programs exist to develop skills that address the organization's needs. Employees should also manage their development separate from development for the company. There are many ways to develop yourself, one is to discover your strengths and develop them.

People do what they are motivated to do!

We often hear managers complain that their workers are not "motivated." However, I remind them that people do what they are motivated to do and they do not do what they are not motivated to do. Fortunately, most employees are motivated with paychecks (the carrot) and do not need much more motivation. There are some employees, unfortunately, that require more effort to motivate in becoming productive and efficient.

Motivation is the drive that compels someone to act because someone else is directing them toward a goal. You can say that motivation is the ability to change behavior. Motivation that comes from inside the person to control their behavior is known as intrinsic motivation. Examples of intrinsic motivation are personal development and personal satisfaction. Motivation that come from external factors such as rewards or the threat of punishment is extrinsic motivation. 

Show Up Early and Stay Late

One of the most valuable lessons that I learned at work was to show up early and stay late. No one taught me this lesson, I just learned it through experience. This has helped me in every job I have had.

I have heard it said that being early is on time, being on time is late, and late is unacceptable. Managers expect every employee to be punctual and dependable. That means that you come in when you are supposed to and on time. That is the minimum expectation, but good employees exceed the expectation.

Every Workday is Goundhog Day

In February of 1993, one of my favorite movies was released. Groundhog Day the movie has since become a classic that is played every year around the actual Groundhog Day. 

The movie is about a news weatherman, Phil Connors, who mysteriously begins to replay the same day over and over. In the end, he changes from a self-centered egotist to an altruistic gentleman--and wins the girl.

From the first time that I watched the movie, I loved it because of the idea of reliving events over until you actually get it right. I wish it was that way with personal or career development, but in reality there are no "do overs." We must live with the consequences of our actions both good and bad. But everyday you go to work, you get the chance to do your job better than the day before and correct any mistakes. In that sense, every workday is a Groundhog Day!

It's a Thing! Emotional Intelligence

"It's a thing" is a series that highlights concepts that employers and managers use and sometimes evaluate employees with that they may not be aware.

Just a few years ago, Emotional Intelligence (EI) was a new topic. Today it seems that everyone is talking about it, yet I find that few people apply it to personal development. Having an understanding of EI is important because it is now a major measuring stick by which employees are measured. I have heard many managers say that a particular employee is not "too high" in EI. The ramifications for not increasing your EI is the difference in a job or no job at worst and the difference in a promotion or no promotion at best.

Conversations are Crucial for Success

Three of the most requested topics for organizational training are communication, team building, and dealing with difficult people. All three require conversations, but few people understand the power of conversations.

Communication in the workplace continues to be a topic that everyone is interested in because it is vital for success. I recently wrote on the topic of having crucial conversations. This week, we look at "Conversational Intelligence." Everything begins with a conversation.

"To get to the next level of greatness depends on the quality of the culture, which depends on the quality of the relationships, which depends on the quality of the conversations.
Everything happens through conversation."

~Judith E. Glaser~

BR: 5 Gears: How to be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time

What would it be worth to your organization to find a way where employs could function together better, be more productive, and people could connect better?  àPriceless!!

Have you ever been focused on a major project or trying to beat a deadline when some one comes into your work space and wants to visit? Or have you been in a social environment and a fellow worker wants to talk shop? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to get in sync with others at work? 

Jeremie Kubicek and Steve Cockram wrote 5 Gears: How to be Present and Productive When There is Never Enough Time to shed light on workplace behavior that hinders a companies relationships and efficiency. This book has been called "a game changer" by many people. In fact, that was what I thought when I first heard about this book.

How to develop your talent?

There is a movement by Human Resources departments to hire the most talented people. Many people will be left behind if they do not understand what these hiring professionals are looking for in their applicants. They are looking for talent.

"If I were running a company today, I would have one priority above all others; to acquire as many of the best people in the world."

~~Jim Collins~~

author of "Good to Great"

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It's a Thing: Force Field Analysis

"It's a thing" is a series that highlights concepts that employers and managers use and sometimes evaluate employees with that the average employee may not be aware.

FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS was developed by Kurt Lewin as a tool for understanding what is needed for change to occur. Force field analysis can be applied to organizational change or individual change. 

The concept is quite easy to understand and apply. For any change to occur, there are two kinds of forces at work--driving forces (DF) and resisting forces (RF) (also called restraining or hindering forces). DF are the forces that are attempting to make the change and RF are at work hindering the change.

BR: How to be happy at work!

Life is too short to be unhappy at work!

Far too many people spend year after year at a job that leaves them unhappy and unfulfilled. This is not fair to them, their families, and fellow employers. Annie McKee wrote How to be Happy at Work: The Power of Purpose, Hope, and Friendship for Harvard Business Review Press (2017).