Soft Skills - Ask a Wharton MBA
Develop Soft Skills – Work Smart & Live More
How to get into a team management role is a great question to ask as you advance in your career. If you have been a stellar individual contributor, the next stage of your career advancement is most likely the management of others.
While this is the natural next step, it is not always obvious how you can become a team manager. Sometimes you’ll be promoted, but other times you’ll have to change jobs to break into a managerial role. ...
I have been struggling with an issue at work: We are doing a project that I know is the right thing to do for the company and the line of business involved. With that said, I still need to figure out the best way to inform the partners in that line of business about the project, get their “buy in,” as well as their help to ensure that it is getting done correctly. ...
In my article, “Dealing with Difficult Personalities – What Not to Do,” I talked about 4 things not to do:
Continuing with my example with Anna, what should I have done? To recap: Anna hada great reputation for being smart and excellent at her job. I also met her casually in the hallway, and thought she was quite nice. During our first business meeting, she cut me off and began to pepper me with questions about why I needed this data and what I planned to use it for. Her tone was sharp and aggressive. I was quite surprised and caught off guard. ” Here are 5 tips I recommend using to deal with any “difficult personality” at work, and for achieving the best long-term results. ...
Since I have written a few networking emails in the last few months, I wanted to share these examples with you to help you with your networking efforts. Below are two examples, each with a different networking purpose.
Example 1: Existing contact – asking for help (scoop on a company X)
Context: This person is in my network (Lisa) but I haven’t spoken to her in five years. Last time, I spoke with her, I helped her with some career advice. We have a mutual friend in common (Cindy) who are good friends with both of us. ...
Many readers have emailed me or commented on the blog to ask how they can build their confidence, since confidence is essential to career success. I want to share this story I heard on Monday to see if it can help.
After each Yoga class, my favorite teacher, Ryan (female), talks to us about how Yoga can change our health and our lives. This Monday, it was a little different. Instead, she told us this story: ...
As much as we would like to think that the business world is far, it’s not. The reality is that we can all get back-stabbed at work. The important thing is how we deal with it if and when it happens.
This is a true story that happened to a colleague of mine. What would you do if this happened to you at work? ...
Many job seekers are considering doing contract work as an alternative to full time employment. It sometimes give us more flexibility and an ability to continue working that full time employment may not allow. When you do transition from full time employment to contract work, you will be paid by the hour instead of a salary. Therefore it’s important to know how to convert salary to an hourly rate in order to know what should ask for in a contract situation. ...