Daily Career Connection

When you step into your office, you are supposed to leave everything else behind and put on a professional face. Here are 7 things that you need to avoid at the work place. These will not only help you make a good impression, but will also help you advance your career.

1. Extended Breaks - One of the most annoying things for other employees or for managers and supervisors is employees taking extended breaks. So what if you have a smoking habit and you need to take a break to indulge in it? What about those who do not smoke? They are going to have a problem if you take long breaks to smoke.

Another irritation and one to be avoided is taking extended lunch breaks. More often than not, people use their lunch hour to do personal work; but if you cannot finish a task within this hour, do it on your own time. Never extend your breaks. It does not make the right impression.

2. Tardiness - Being late to work on a given day may be excused. But what is not tolerated is coming in late everyday and leaving early. This is unfair to those people who come on time and leave on time. Do not misuse work hours, unless you have a genuine reason and one that can be excused.

3. Loud Behavior - There are people around you who are trying to work. They do not need disturbances like loud talking or completely irrelevant discussions. Respect other people and their work. You are not only disturbing them by talking loudly, but you are not showing them respect.
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It’s amazing how far a little communication can go…

I used to work in computer support, and to be honest, I hated it. Whether I hated it because I was bad at it, or I was bad at it because I hated it, I don’t know. But I do know that I would deal with my displeasure by minimizing my contact with my users. Turns out, this is not a strong strategy.

I had a list of problems to solve and equipment to order. My policy - internal to me, not posted - was to only communicate with people once the equipment was in or the problem was solved. At the time, this minimized my need to interact with people and tell them that things weren’t going well. Now, looking back, I realize that this just made the situation worse and my life harder.

In situations where I could quickly solve the problem or get the equipment, there was no problem. However, not surprisingly, many times things would take a wee bit longer. While I knew exactly what was going on, the user was left sitting there wondering whether I was still working on their problem. This led to more than one frustrated conversation where the user was wondering what the heck was going on. One time I even had someone yell at me about a problem I had already fixed - I just never told them it was solved!

It’s easy to hold off contacting the user. You start to think that if you wait “just one more day,” that maybe you’ll have it fixed.

There is a strong fear effect here. You don’t want to talk to the user just to say that the problem is still not solved, as we all know that an upset user likes to lash out at the nearest target - you! Also, you get this weird sense of, “what’s the point of contacting them if I have nothing new to report?”

This attitude is 100% logical and correct, and totally the wrong approach for long term success. At the end of the day, all businesses are relationship businesses. By simply keeping the user in the loop, you will be building the key relationship for your success. He or she may be upset, but they will be less upset than if you just ignored them (from their perspective).

People know that things can go wrong. They may not like it, but they can accept it. What they can not accept is being disrespected, and not involving them in the process of solving their problem is a form of disrespect.

The long term benefit of this is that over time, as people understand that you are keeping them in the loop, your rapport with the users will increase. This will make all future interactions more positive and effective.

This approach works outside the realm of support as well. Whether you are in sales, development, or management, regular communication with the people you are working with and who are relying on you is the key to building strong long-term relationships.
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First of all, there is no such thing as an ordinary person. Everyone is unique and special in his or her own way. Ordinary people for clarification purposes here means people who are earning average or ordinary incomes.

This idea when applied daily could be worth millions of dollar to you. I’m sure you have had this happen to you. About an hour before you normally get up in the morning, your mental Opportunity Clock wakes you with a great new idea. You think to yourself, I should get up and write this down before I forget it. Instead, you sleep in and get up when your Alarm Clock goes off. After about two hours, you think, hey, what was that great idea I had earlier this morning? Sadly, it never comes back. If you did not catch that, let me say it another way. Never turn off your Opportunity Clock without first writing down on the note pad next to your bed, a brief overview of that idea or opportunity.

Here is some background about average and ordinary income earners. Most people find a job and stay with it. They only move to another job or career if pressured into doing so through being “pink-slipped,” let go, fired, or by having their job out-sourced. These same people go through life giving up on their dreams and visions because they have concluded that their incomes will never rise high enough for them to see their dreams and vision become realities in their lifetime. They simply have conditioned themselves to believe and accept that the income box that they are in is what will determine what they will be able to afford for the rest of their life. They believe that having no job is much worse that having the job they have. They are fear-conditioned daily by TV and newspapers of possibly losing their job. They conclude that they better not rock the boat so to speak, don’t ask for a pay-raise, promotion; just take what is given to them without ever asking for more or better of anything. Not surprisingly, they do get what they don’t ask for, nothing!
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I was delighted to discover “Workination: Are You Fascinated With Your Career” because  his new book is packed with real-life examples, proven success strategies and unique career development insights that will help you grow professionally.

Todd is making this great book available to DCC reades for just $19.95, if you buy today.

I don’t want you to miss this great book. Here’s a short article by Todd that will give you a flavor of his ideas and methods.

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    By Todd Royer

I recently called a technical specialist at a large company to ask about that company’s quality program. As I began conversing with the man I contacted, I had to explain how little I knew about cosmetics quality and he began to explain in detail what he knew. It’s a common experience. Ask and you will learn. I keep finding how very open people are with what they know. It’s as if they are waiting to be asked about their special areas of expertise. The trick is, how do you ask your questions?

There are right ways and wrong ways to elicit information, so let’s begin with the wrong way. If you are not willing to know less than the person you are talking with, then there’s a substantial chance a kind of intellectual competition will begin. You say one thing and the other person responds with a little more information, and it goes back and forth. But what makes this competition escalate is that there’s an emotional component to the dialog. The information is exchanged to prove you know just a little more than the other person, and they resond for the same reason. You can feel it in your abdomen as you speak. It’s a tense feeling and whether you intend it or not, there’s a put down that accompanies each volley of the exchange. Sure you can cull a lot of information this way, but it always comes at a personal cost.
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