Thursday, January 22, 2009

Tips On Advancing One's Career by Linda Lee

1. Being serious and focused at work can help to reinforce your professional image. Aiming to be meticulous and mindful can help to minimise distraction, and bring about efficiency and consistency.

2. Be hardworking, humble; and unafraid to ask questions (and make a fool of yourself). There's no shortcut to success and the only way to prove yourself is to put in effort and be willing to learn from mistakes. Yes, you may learn how to work smart, but a good boss will know better to reward a deserving employee than credit an empty vessel who has no real results to show.

3. Strive to position yourself as a valuable asset and market your unique selling point consistently so that you appear to have a competitive advantage over your peers. If you know you're weak in certain areas, compensate by trying to amplify your strong points while working on the former. You could also demonstrate initiative to show that you're dependable and willing to go an extra mile to complete a job.

4. Everyone loves a nice guy so look at ways to bring up your EQ (emotional quotient) and refrain from letting the grouch in you surface at work. Always be polite and learn to manage your anger instead of allowing your emotions to run wild. A pleasant worker demonstrates professional decorum and this will definitely make him more outstanding that another who doesn't.

5. Be responsible, keen and pro-active at work. Be dedicated to and take ownership of your given task, and strive to complete it well, even if it's not the most interesting thing in the world to do. Take pride in what you do and let your enthusiasm shine through. Infecting others, including your supervisor, with your positive vibes is one sure way of leaving a good impression. Just remember not to overdo it.

6. Be reliable. Show your boss you can be trusted and is a sure-footed, independent-yet-dependable employee. This will help to raise your profile at work.

7. Being organised lends an appearance of someone who's steady and capable of keeping things under control. This is an important trait as it implies you have thought through certain processes and are therefore apt at handling arising matters in times of change or crisis; so work on this aspect if you want to give your career a boost.

8. Lastly, be observant and keep an open and flexible mind so that you can adapt to changes easily.

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