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CAREER BASICS Business Fundamentals FOR
SUCCESS IN THE
Workplace Copyright © 2012 Tim Passerell All rights reserved. No part of this material shall be reproduced, electronically stored, or photocopied without the written permission of the author. This book is designed to provide accurate and useful information on the subject matter covered. As individual situations are unique and non-linear, proper action for best results will vary based on individual circumstances. ISBN 978-0-615-63506-4 For more information on how Communication Stars can help you or your company take performance to the next level, please visit us at:
http://www.communicationstars.com
Contents
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … .4 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .5 Chapter 1 The Perception Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 9 Chapter 2 Communication Skills 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 14 Chapter 3 Focus, Direction, Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 22 Chapter 4 A Winning Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 39 Chapter 5 Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43 Chapter 6 Comprehensive Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 49 Chapter 7 A Strong Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Chapter 8 The Office Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 60 Chapter 9 Interviewing Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 74 Chapter 10 Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 89 Chapter 11 Successful Negotiating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Chapter 12 Negotiating Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Chapter 13 The Wrap Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Reference List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .106
Acknowledgements Thanks to my wife and children for their patience during the lengthy process of writing this book and to Tim and Stefanie for their input and time. Many thanks go out to my parents who instilled in me the importance of character and proper work ethic.
Introduction Whether you are a recent college graduate just starting your professional career or someone with experience in the workplace who seems to have hit a wall and cannot advance beyond his current position, this book will share with you the key fundamental skills and behaviors that are needed if you truly desire to build a successful career. Unfortunately, many people hurt their ability to receive promotions and achieve career goals because they overlook the importance of several pillars of truth within the business world. First, hard skills, those needed to do a specific job, are not enough when you are looking to become a true business professional. How many times have you seen a co-worker or boss who had great job knowledge but could not get along with their peers to save his life? Second, many people are unfamiliar with the importance of the emotional intelligence factor and stagnate in the business environment and with peer interactions because they do not realize just how critical these skills are in our relationships and for career success. Third, the incognizance of some workers on the importance of integrating with and respecting specific cultures within a company can cause friction and make them seem as though they are not a team player. These, along with many other critical factors, play a key role in individual, organizational, and career success. Often, it may just be one piece of knowledge that is missing and preventing you from achieving your goals. Within Career Basics, I cover the most fundamental as well as some of the more advanced skills and practices that, when learned and applied to your situation, will allow you to grow professionally beyond the average person in today’s business environment. With this new knowledge, mindset, behavior, and projection of professionalism, you will be armed and ready to take your career to the next level. In this journey through life, many small goals are achieved and then used as stepping stones to accomplishing our major goals. These triumphs ultimately lead us to a more complete and personal contentment in our careers and can often also be applied in our personal and spiritual lives, bringing added benefits.
Some goals are quick victories that fuel our passion to continue forward while others take years to come to full fruition. The complete process, including our successes and failures that we experience while achieving these goals, will lead us down the path to true success. The information throughout this book will share the basic fundamental components that will build on your existing skills as you become a more complete professional. These fundamental principles will help you to develop a strong foundation in your professional career as the information goes above and beyond the technical know-how needed to do your specific job. For example, the level of your present communication skills and business savvy are one indicator of where you currently are in your personal, social, and business development. Do business peers think highly of you and prefer working with you over others in your group or department? To build upon your current skill set and knowledge, I will discuss topics including how to properly set goals, effectively communicate, use effective negotiating methods, and how integrity and character play a role in your career success. Mastery and implementation of these concepts, along with your business experience, training, and determination, will set you apart from others. With more than thirty years of experience excelling in customer and business relationship development, sales, negotiating, and best management practices in both a service and sales environment, I will share the basics and then touch on more advanced factors that I have found to be most critical in preparing yourself for success in this new millennium business age. Based on proven successes of specific business practices, along with research on philosophies from experts and highly-successful businesses and their leaders, I have compiled a basic blueprint that will allow you to implement the necessary steps to become a valuable asset and get on the path to a successful career.
Real life experiences are one of the best ways to learn and develop your skills, but these life lessons can come at a great expense to career advancement. By knowing the basics on how to go about developing those skills, setting proper goals, and then making the best decisions, you can avoid serious pitfalls as you look to become a successful business person and enjoy all of the benefits that are experienced within a flourishing career. By combining professionalism, motivation, ethical decision making, and setting clear goals that are in line with good character and values, anyone can set himself on a course toward high achievement, happiness, and success in his personal and professional endeavors. I recall a quote I heard years ago from sales and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, which basically stated, “You can get all that you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.” By developing good business skills and etiquette, you will naturally help co-workers, supervisors, and yourself achieve true success. Now let’s get started!
1 THE PERCEPTION FACTOR How you are perceived and treated by others is often based on several factors, but there are two that are among the strongest influencers. They are, in no order of importance: #1) Appearance #2) How well you communicate with others These are two seemingly basic factors that each of us portray outwardly toward others on a daily basis. Each one carries an enormous importance and will impact the amount of success we will experience in the workplace as well as the quality and depth of the relationships we will have with others. When you communicate in a concise, professional manner with
friends, colleagues, and peers, this obviously adds to your credibility. It helps others to see you as someone with the ability to clearly share his ideas and express himself. Executives in numerous surveys have rated employee soft skills such as chemistry, teamwork, communication and presentation skills higher in importance than work experience or education. There are many other “soft skills” that will help you succeed in your career. So, just what are soft skills? Opposite of your technical abilities, soft skills refer to the often intangible characteristics that make individuals highly successful in their chosen career. While “hard job skills” are important, your soft skills and “business smarts” are what will initially give you the job or business advancement opportunities you seek within your career and keep you in the top echelon of valued and promotable employees. As Rachel Osterman noted in her news article, a survey of 145 businesses rated nontechnical abilities like communication, punctuality, and good work ethic as desired employee “soft skills.” They also include numerous emotional intelligence (EI) factors such as your unique ability to get along with others, self-awareness levels, and how effectively you respond in conflict situations. By understanding EI and the role it can play in our interactions with peers, our boss, and customers, we can learn to sense and regulate our emotional feelings, responses and reactions in order to remain effective and accomplish our goal. Adaptability, keen business sense, and critical thinking skills are examples of other soft skills that will separate average workers from the top performers both in the workforce and in social interactions beyond the workplace. There are many books and business courses that can help you learn more about these skills and allow you to apply that knowledge to real world experiences. This will help you develop these key soft skills and benefit from the many positive outcomes that they will create. The communication tips in this book can be put to use immediately by anyone, regardless of where you find yourself at this point in your life. Whether you are a student, parent, spouse, a worker changing
careers, or the latest casualty of an organizational downsizing, knowing how to effectively communicate and interact with others will help you reflect an image of someone who is competent, caring, and a true professional. For example, using active listening techniques allows you to correctly interpret a message as well as share complete and accurate information so that others can process it effectively and make the most accurate decisions. Good communication skills benefit you in many ways and are a major asset if you wish to develop strong negotiating skills, whether you are interviewing for a job, negotiating a final job offer, or making a major purchase such as a car or home. There are ideal actions and reactions within a negotiation that will influence whether or not you will have a successful outcome. How you communicate and handle yourself during the negotiation (verbal tone and emotional reactions) will impact the other party’s perception of you and his willingness to work with you toward a successful outcome. While this advice may come to some naturally, there are many people, from new graduates to white collar professionals, who are plagued by the numerous negative effects in their lives because of insufficient knowledge or, in some cases, laziness in embracing and implementing these key elements in their lives. Unfortunately, not only are we judged by how we talk or act, but also by how we look and dress. Appearance is the other critical factor in the success quotient, and by knowing how to dress properly in a business environment or for a particular social setting, you can present yourself in a way that is accepted and reflects a positive image to others. Let’s face it, you may be a good person on the inside and highly skilled for the office job you are seeking, but if you come to the interview dressed in jean shorts, a tank top and sandals, you probably won’t be getting a call for a second interview, unless you are applying for a lifeguard position at your local pool.
Simply observing the standard dress style for your particular job or business environment is a crucial part of your career success. Take, for example, the story a few years ago regarding a very smart, good looking, and talented woman who was in a mid-level management position at CNN. She was befuddled as to why she was not able to get promoted past her current position. As a manager at the station explained, she wore the same white dress shoes with a large squatty heel every day. The advice to her by an executive associate was to make a permanent shoe change by switching to a basic black business style dress shoe. It was that simple. The odd look of her old shoes had been reflecting negatively on her image and preventing her from advancing in her career. Once she made the change, she went on to receive several promotions in a fairly short time. It is very important that you have an awareness of the small and seemingly insignificant points that can cause others to view you in a negative manner. Maybe you tend to finish people’s sentences or wear over-powering perfume. If so, your self-awareness and corrective action of these harmful practices can help improve your relationships and how you are viewed by others. How many times have you talked with someone who always shifts the topic of conversation to himself or something he’s experienced? Or, maybe you know someone who always talks about himself but never asks how you feel about the discussion topic or rarely shows interest by asking about you or your job, hobbies, or family? If you know someone who is a “me only” person, you probably become tired of him or her and avoid extensive involvement with that person. You naturally gravitate to others who communicate in a healthy 50-50, give- and-take discussion. As you continue on in this book, here are some questions to ask yourself and continually review, trying to implement corrective action where improvement is warranted. Have I analyzed and know my strengths and weaknesses and applied a game plan to improve where needed? Can I work with others and know when to keep work and social relationships separated? Do I have integrity and a set of values that I can list and will not
compromise? Have I set specific personal and professional goals; short term (six months to three years) as well as long term goals (five to ten years), and I re-evaluate those goals yearly? Have I identified areas where I can improve my communication and professional/career skills? Do I accept constructive criticism personally and address conflicts in a healthy manner? Do I take responsibility when I am wrong and keep a positive outlook towards myself, others, and my career? Remember that each company will have their own unique business culture, created by the policies and examples set forth by management. For a healthy, productive, thriving business, employees must possess strong interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills along with the ability to show empathy, resolve customer problems, and successfully engage in win-win negotiations. Many of these same skills are used to build rapport with customers and to develop successful relationships and teamwork interacting with co-workers. Develop these areas for a well-rounded professional image and impress your boss!
2 COMMUNICATION SKILLS 101 Communication skills are vital to our success in the business environment as well as in each of our personal relationships. While the goal is to always have our message interpreted with its original intent, skewed communication often occurs because of any one of many oversights. Regardless of your occupation, the need for clear communication is vital to success in your job and for the efficient operation and growth of the organization. To improve your chances of a successful communication interchange, I will share some critical points to keep in mind. First, ask yourself, “Who is my intended audience?” Are they knowledgeable on the subject matter? Are you addressing a student assembly, a technical group, a management team, or the general public?
This will dictate how detailed your message should be and whether you will need to keep to a basic message format or if you can be more detailed and freely use common industry jargon or buzz words. Next, determine if there could be any forms of existing resistance that you may face and, if so, do you have the data or other information to support your message? Also consider what you would ultimately desire your audience to take away from your communication with them. This will help you to deliver a clear, focused message. End of preview.
SUCCESS IN THE
Workplace Copyright © 2012 Tim Passerell All rights reserved. No part of this material shall be reproduced, electronically stored, or photocopied without the written permission of the author. This book is designed to provide accurate and useful information on the subject matter covered. As individual situations are unique and non-linear, proper action for best results will vary based on individual circumstances. ISBN 978-0-615-63506-4 For more information on how Communication Stars can help you or your company take performance to the next level, please visit us at:
http://www.communicationstars.com
Contents
Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . … .4 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . .5 Chapter 1 The Perception Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 9 Chapter 2 Communication Skills 101 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 14 Chapter 3 Focus, Direction, Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 22 Chapter 4 A Winning Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . 39 Chapter 5 Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 43 Chapter 6 Comprehensive Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... 49 Chapter 7 A Strong Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Chapter 8 The Office Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 60 Chapter 9 Interviewing Fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 74 Chapter 10 Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 89 Chapter 11 Successful Negotiating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Chapter 12 Negotiating Principles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 Chapter 13 The Wrap Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Reference List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . .106
Acknowledgements Thanks to my wife and children for their patience during the lengthy process of writing this book and to Tim and Stefanie for their input and time. Many thanks go out to my parents who instilled in me the importance of character and proper work ethic.
Introduction Whether you are a recent college graduate just starting your professional career or someone with experience in the workplace who seems to have hit a wall and cannot advance beyond his current position, this book will share with you the key fundamental skills and behaviors that are needed if you truly desire to build a successful career. Unfortunately, many people hurt their ability to receive promotions and achieve career goals because they overlook the importance of several pillars of truth within the business world. First, hard skills, those needed to do a specific job, are not enough when you are looking to become a true business professional. How many times have you seen a co-worker or boss who had great job knowledge but could not get along with their peers to save his life? Second, many people are unfamiliar with the importance of the emotional intelligence factor and stagnate in the business environment and with peer interactions because they do not realize just how critical these skills are in our relationships and for career success. Third, the incognizance of some workers on the importance of integrating with and respecting specific cultures within a company can cause friction and make them seem as though they are not a team player. These, along with many other critical factors, play a key role in individual, organizational, and career success. Often, it may just be one piece of knowledge that is missing and preventing you from achieving your goals. Within Career Basics, I cover the most fundamental as well as some of the more advanced skills and practices that, when learned and applied to your situation, will allow you to grow professionally beyond the average person in today’s business environment. With this new knowledge, mindset, behavior, and projection of professionalism, you will be armed and ready to take your career to the next level. In this journey through life, many small goals are achieved and then used as stepping stones to accomplishing our major goals. These triumphs ultimately lead us to a more complete and personal contentment in our careers and can often also be applied in our personal and spiritual lives, bringing added benefits.
Some goals are quick victories that fuel our passion to continue forward while others take years to come to full fruition. The complete process, including our successes and failures that we experience while achieving these goals, will lead us down the path to true success. The information throughout this book will share the basic fundamental components that will build on your existing skills as you become a more complete professional. These fundamental principles will help you to develop a strong foundation in your professional career as the information goes above and beyond the technical know-how needed to do your specific job. For example, the level of your present communication skills and business savvy are one indicator of where you currently are in your personal, social, and business development. Do business peers think highly of you and prefer working with you over others in your group or department? To build upon your current skill set and knowledge, I will discuss topics including how to properly set goals, effectively communicate, use effective negotiating methods, and how integrity and character play a role in your career success. Mastery and implementation of these concepts, along with your business experience, training, and determination, will set you apart from others. With more than thirty years of experience excelling in customer and business relationship development, sales, negotiating, and best management practices in both a service and sales environment, I will share the basics and then touch on more advanced factors that I have found to be most critical in preparing yourself for success in this new millennium business age. Based on proven successes of specific business practices, along with research on philosophies from experts and highly-successful businesses and their leaders, I have compiled a basic blueprint that will allow you to implement the necessary steps to become a valuable asset and get on the path to a successful career.
Real life experiences are one of the best ways to learn and develop your skills, but these life lessons can come at a great expense to career advancement. By knowing the basics on how to go about developing those skills, setting proper goals, and then making the best decisions, you can avoid serious pitfalls as you look to become a successful business person and enjoy all of the benefits that are experienced within a flourishing career. By combining professionalism, motivation, ethical decision making, and setting clear goals that are in line with good character and values, anyone can set himself on a course toward high achievement, happiness, and success in his personal and professional endeavors. I recall a quote I heard years ago from sales and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, which basically stated, “You can get all that you want in life if you just help enough other people get what they want.” By developing good business skills and etiquette, you will naturally help co-workers, supervisors, and yourself achieve true success. Now let’s get started!
1 THE PERCEPTION FACTOR How you are perceived and treated by others is often based on several factors, but there are two that are among the strongest influencers. They are, in no order of importance: #1) Appearance #2) How well you communicate with others These are two seemingly basic factors that each of us portray outwardly toward others on a daily basis. Each one carries an enormous importance and will impact the amount of success we will experience in the workplace as well as the quality and depth of the relationships we will have with others. When you communicate in a concise, professional manner with
friends, colleagues, and peers, this obviously adds to your credibility. It helps others to see you as someone with the ability to clearly share his ideas and express himself. Executives in numerous surveys have rated employee soft skills such as chemistry, teamwork, communication and presentation skills higher in importance than work experience or education. There are many other “soft skills” that will help you succeed in your career. So, just what are soft skills? Opposite of your technical abilities, soft skills refer to the often intangible characteristics that make individuals highly successful in their chosen career. While “hard job skills” are important, your soft skills and “business smarts” are what will initially give you the job or business advancement opportunities you seek within your career and keep you in the top echelon of valued and promotable employees. As Rachel Osterman noted in her news article, a survey of 145 businesses rated nontechnical abilities like communication, punctuality, and good work ethic as desired employee “soft skills.” They also include numerous emotional intelligence (EI) factors such as your unique ability to get along with others, self-awareness levels, and how effectively you respond in conflict situations. By understanding EI and the role it can play in our interactions with peers, our boss, and customers, we can learn to sense and regulate our emotional feelings, responses and reactions in order to remain effective and accomplish our goal. Adaptability, keen business sense, and critical thinking skills are examples of other soft skills that will separate average workers from the top performers both in the workforce and in social interactions beyond the workplace. There are many books and business courses that can help you learn more about these skills and allow you to apply that knowledge to real world experiences. This will help you develop these key soft skills and benefit from the many positive outcomes that they will create. The communication tips in this book can be put to use immediately by anyone, regardless of where you find yourself at this point in your life. Whether you are a student, parent, spouse, a worker changing
careers, or the latest casualty of an organizational downsizing, knowing how to effectively communicate and interact with others will help you reflect an image of someone who is competent, caring, and a true professional. For example, using active listening techniques allows you to correctly interpret a message as well as share complete and accurate information so that others can process it effectively and make the most accurate decisions. Good communication skills benefit you in many ways and are a major asset if you wish to develop strong negotiating skills, whether you are interviewing for a job, negotiating a final job offer, or making a major purchase such as a car or home. There are ideal actions and reactions within a negotiation that will influence whether or not you will have a successful outcome. How you communicate and handle yourself during the negotiation (verbal tone and emotional reactions) will impact the other party’s perception of you and his willingness to work with you toward a successful outcome. While this advice may come to some naturally, there are many people, from new graduates to white collar professionals, who are plagued by the numerous negative effects in their lives because of insufficient knowledge or, in some cases, laziness in embracing and implementing these key elements in their lives. Unfortunately, not only are we judged by how we talk or act, but also by how we look and dress. Appearance is the other critical factor in the success quotient, and by knowing how to dress properly in a business environment or for a particular social setting, you can present yourself in a way that is accepted and reflects a positive image to others. Let’s face it, you may be a good person on the inside and highly skilled for the office job you are seeking, but if you come to the interview dressed in jean shorts, a tank top and sandals, you probably won’t be getting a call for a second interview, unless you are applying for a lifeguard position at your local pool.
Simply observing the standard dress style for your particular job or business environment is a crucial part of your career success. Take, for example, the story a few years ago regarding a very smart, good looking, and talented woman who was in a mid-level management position at CNN. She was befuddled as to why she was not able to get promoted past her current position. As a manager at the station explained, she wore the same white dress shoes with a large squatty heel every day. The advice to her by an executive associate was to make a permanent shoe change by switching to a basic black business style dress shoe. It was that simple. The odd look of her old shoes had been reflecting negatively on her image and preventing her from advancing in her career. Once she made the change, she went on to receive several promotions in a fairly short time. It is very important that you have an awareness of the small and seemingly insignificant points that can cause others to view you in a negative manner. Maybe you tend to finish people’s sentences or wear over-powering perfume. If so, your self-awareness and corrective action of these harmful practices can help improve your relationships and how you are viewed by others. How many times have you talked with someone who always shifts the topic of conversation to himself or something he’s experienced? Or, maybe you know someone who always talks about himself but never asks how you feel about the discussion topic or rarely shows interest by asking about you or your job, hobbies, or family? If you know someone who is a “me only” person, you probably become tired of him or her and avoid extensive involvement with that person. You naturally gravitate to others who communicate in a healthy 50-50, give- and-take discussion. As you continue on in this book, here are some questions to ask yourself and continually review, trying to implement corrective action where improvement is warranted. Have I analyzed and know my strengths and weaknesses and applied a game plan to improve where needed? Can I work with others and know when to keep work and social relationships separated? Do I have integrity and a set of values that I can list and will not
compromise? Have I set specific personal and professional goals; short term (six months to three years) as well as long term goals (five to ten years), and I re-evaluate those goals yearly? Have I identified areas where I can improve my communication and professional/career skills? Do I accept constructive criticism personally and address conflicts in a healthy manner? Do I take responsibility when I am wrong and keep a positive outlook towards myself, others, and my career? Remember that each company will have their own unique business culture, created by the policies and examples set forth by management. For a healthy, productive, thriving business, employees must possess strong interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills along with the ability to show empathy, resolve customer problems, and successfully engage in win-win negotiations. Many of these same skills are used to build rapport with customers and to develop successful relationships and teamwork interacting with co-workers. Develop these areas for a well-rounded professional image and impress your boss!
2 COMMUNICATION SKILLS 101 Communication skills are vital to our success in the business environment as well as in each of our personal relationships. While the goal is to always have our message interpreted with its original intent, skewed communication often occurs because of any one of many oversights. Regardless of your occupation, the need for clear communication is vital to success in your job and for the efficient operation and growth of the organization. To improve your chances of a successful communication interchange, I will share some critical points to keep in mind. First, ask yourself, “Who is my intended audience?” Are they knowledgeable on the subject matter? Are you addressing a student assembly, a technical group, a management team, or the general public?
This will dictate how detailed your message should be and whether you will need to keep to a basic message format or if you can be more detailed and freely use common industry jargon or buzz words. Next, determine if there could be any forms of existing resistance that you may face and, if so, do you have the data or other information to support your message? Also consider what you would ultimately desire your audience to take away from your communication with them. This will help you to deliver a clear, focused message. End of preview.
