How to guides

How to Stand Up for Yourself Without Sounding Defensive

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stand up for yourself

How to stand up for yourself is an important topic for us to discuss if you want to succeed like an executive.  As we discussed before, success is about working smarter not harder.  You have to subtly self promote to build your reputation.

As part of self promotion, it’s critical that you stand up for yourself when others are talking about your work in a way that can negatively affect your reputation.  For example, not everyone plays fair office politics: a person may falsely accuse you of some wrong, or take credit for your work.  It is also possible that a misunderstanding or miscommunication resulted in someone pointing fingers at you.  It’s unfair, but this is the reality of the corporate world. ...  read more

3 Rules of Work by Albert Einstein

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albert einstein

Albert Einstein once said,

“Three rules of work:

  1. Out of clutter find simplicity;
  2. From discord find harmony; 
  3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”   

My husband shared this quote with me this morning.  While it seems so simple, there is so much wisdom in it.  Here is what each rule means to me:

Rule #1: Out of clutter find simplicity
This quote reminds me of my volunteer experience with Dr. Pete at his Zone Healing Center.  I have volunteered there for 4 years now as his office manager, working only 1-2 hour per week. ...  read more

How to Deal with Other’s Incompetence – 5 Tips

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work incompetence

I work on multiple initiatives simultaneously at my current job.  Some of them are long term, big projects, and some of them are smaller projects under one big program.  Two of these smaller projects have given me serious headaches and stress in the past few days.

Why?  Because the key people I work with on these two projects: ...  read more

How to Ask for Help – 7 Tips

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ask for help

Whether you are searching for a job or working in a job, at some point you will need to ask for help if you don’t want to hinder your progress.  No man or woman should be an island in their life or work.  It’s unrealistic to expect yourself to know it all or do it alone.

This is why the ability to ask for help is one of the most critical soft skills to develop in order to achieve excellence in your career.  Tom Peters, the author of the famous management book, “In Search of Excellence,” agrees.  Assuming that you also agree, let’s talk about how to best ask for help, since the approach matters.  Here are 7 tips on how to ask for help effectively: ...  read more

Let Your Team Take Care of the Monkeys

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What is all this talk about Monkeys you may ask?  Well, the article is inspired by one of the most famous management articles written in the Harvard Business Review (HBR) back in 1974 called Management Time – Who’s Got the Monkey?

I think this is a must read for anyone who wants to succeed in their career no matter what your level is today.  I actually only read this article 5 years ago and found the examples and advice still very relevant today.   In this week’s article, we will talk about tips for managers – why you should leave the Monkeys to your team and focus your time more on Gorillas.  Monkeys and Gorillas are basically animated analogies to represent small and large business problems your company is facing. ...  read more

Five Behaviors to Avoid as a Manager

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bad manager

We often hear about the skills we should develop when we transition from team member to manager. What we seldom hear is that we need to UNLEARN some behaviors in order to transition into effective managers. Some of the things that made us excel as a team member can be the kiss of death to our performance as a manager. Here are five behaviors to avoid as a Manager: ...  read more

#4 Most Common Mistake People Make at Work

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life is an echo

It took me about six years to learn how not to make this mistake at work. In some ways, I am still learning how to avoid it, as my instinct as an engineer and an overachiever is to tell people that I am right when I feel that I am right. 

You may say, “if you are right, why can’t you tell people so?” Well, I can tell you right now, even when you know you are right, it’s better not to lead with it unless you don’t care about breaking relationships. Guess what? No one wants to be told that they are wrong, especially in front of other people. ...  read more