Difficult situations

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 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

Someone Took Credit for Your Work – What to Do

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In the work-place, is it better to ensure you individually are given credit for your work, or that the team benefits from your work?

My team recently submitted a proposal of which I prepared more than 75%. In fact, of the 25% my analyst (who is junior to me) prepared, I had to revise significantly. The final paper was jointly signed by both of us. Our Chief Risk Officer reached out to my analyst commending his great paper, cc:ing my boss. My boss then congratulated the analyst on his great work as well. ...  read more

Recovering from a Work Setback – Dos and Donts

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I had an important meeting to lead yesterday. After six months of managing this project, I was hoping this meeting would be the final one needed to get there necessary agreement from all the key business stakeholders. Everything was looking good — we already went through 4 rounds of feedback, and addressed all the concerns voiced over emails or on previous calls. Some of the key stakeholders that I thought would have serious objections were now big supporters of our reject output. This last meeting was just going to be a formality to put the bow on the final product. ...  read more

How to Handle Negative Feedback – 4 Tips

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negative feedback

Negative feedback is a fact of life. Sometimes it’s fair, constructive, and expected, but sometimes it can be completely out of the blue.   You cannot easily change your boss’s perceptions or motives for giving you negative feedback.  What you can control, however, is how you respond to it.  So learn how to handle negative feedback early in your career. ...  read more

Back-stabbed at Work – How Sarah Responded

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back-stabbed at work

Recently, I wrote about Sarah, who were back-stabbed at work and asked you what you would do if you were her.  Thanks for all who voted!  It was great to see many of you knew the best way to handle this unfortunate situation and protect yourself and your work reputation.   Here is what Sarah actually did.  All the quoted dialogue are paraphrased ...  read more