Joel Garfinkle's Blog, page 10

Don’t Let Your Work Speak for Itself: 3 Ways to Increase Your Visibility

“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.”

~Anthony Robbins~

Anne asks:

The people I work with on a daily basis appreciate the work I produce. But I’m having trouble expanding my reputation for high-quality work beyond them. How should I approach my work in order to become more visible in my workplace?

Joel replies:

Here are a few strategies that will help you gain visibility, which requires careful self-branding. In contrast, passively letting your quality work speak for itself would leave you unnoticed, although many people view this as their sole strategy for advancement. These strategies will help you create a strong visibility plan that will make key players throughout your organization appreciate your great work.

Identify key decision makers in your company and gain exposure to them. Make a list of all the key decision makers in your organization, and create a strategy for becoming visible to each of them. You might have another colleague who can introduce you to them, for instance. Once you gain visibility and a rapport with these individuals, you can contact them for advice, support, or mentorship.
Gain face time with the C-level executives. Don’t be intimidated by a person’s title, reputation, or fame. After all, they were all where you are today at one time in their careers. Reach out to them and make sure they know who you are. They will genuinely appreciate your initiative.
Share your exciting achievements with all of these higher-ups. Remember that you’re not bragging; you’re sharing developments that benefit the whole company. Frame your announcements in this way, focusing on how what you’ve accomplished is helping the organization.
Seek out the answer when a higher-level leader asks a question. When a higher-up lacks clarity on an issue and doesn’t have the solution in that moment, work to provide the answer. That person will come to rely on you as a problem-solver, seeing you as creative, driven, and reliable.
Speak up during meetings to demonstrate your expertise and self-confidence. Remember, it’s normal to be nervous at first. Prepare thoughts that you want to share in advance, so you’ll be more articulate in the moment. Others will see you as more knowledgeable and capable as you become more vocal in meetings.
Ask your mentors to introduce you to top executives. You may have already cultivated relationships with a few mentors who have networks of executives with whom they interact regularly. (If not, work to foster these relationships.) As your mentors get to know you and your work, they’ll come to see that connecting you with these influential individuals will benefit everyone.

In short, don’t make the mistake of assuming you can let your good work itself speak to your skills and talents in a way that makes others take notice. You need a strong self-promotion strategy to advance in your career. Follow this advice, and you’ll get there.

Call to Action:

Want more advice on how to increase your visibility in the workplace? Evaluate your visibility via assessment so you can learn the ten areas you must emphasize to be visible.

Talkback:

Have you used any of these tips for increasing your visibility? What results did you see?

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The 16 Ways to Improve Your Work Performance In 2017

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.”

~Tom Peters~

Simon wanted to have an extremely productive upcoming year. He reached out for executive coaching so he could take the necessary steps to help him improve his work performance. With advanced planning, he knew he would be prepared to start the New Year with a significant advantage.

This is the plan that I completed with Simon and other clients over the years.

STEP 1 – CLOSE OUT THE OLD YEAR. Close out the year in an effective way so you are ready to charge forward in the New Year.

1. Wrap up loose ends. Close out those small nagging projects you’ve been meaning to do. Make the phone calls, answer those emails, and turn in expense reports. Essentially you want to clear out dated projects so you can start fresh.

2. Organize your work area. Clean up your desk, put away old papers, toss dated files and generally straighten your physical area. Then you’ll come back to a clean organized office for less stress.

3. List your accomplishments for the year. Take the time to review your accomplishments. Quantify all that you can. How did it benefit the company? What value have you brought? Keep this in a file for your next review.

4. Keep in contact. Before you leave for vacation turn on voice mail and email autoresponders with a message you are away. Make sure the office has a contact for you in case of urgent matters. You don’t want to return from vacation to unpleasant surprises.

5. Check employee benefits. Businesses often have changes to their employee benefits that happen with the changing year. Take a look. Do they affect you? Or have your circumstances changed and you need to update beneficiaries, withholding amounts, or providers?

STEP 2 – TAKE A YEAR-END BREAK. Be sure to take a well-deserved year end break. This is a time for relaxation and renewal. You will return to work more vitalized and energized than if you just keep on working without a break.

6. Unplug. Disconnecting from typical social media and technology gives your brain a chance to recharge. It calls on new neuron paths and creates new ways of thinking. When you return to work, your performance will improve.

7. Connect with family and friends. Personal interaction is another way to recharge your life. Pick up hobbies and activities. Have fun. Enjoy.

8. Strengthen your network. The holidays are a great time to send greetings to those you want to keep in your network.

9. Gratitude. Life feels fuller and more enjoyable when we have gratitude. Take time to thank others and express appreciation. Be grateful for what you have.

10. Reflect on your personal and professional life. What changes do you want to make to have a more fulfilling life?

STEP 3 – PREPARE FOR A FRESH START. As you start 2017 you will be prepared for a fresh start. Think of it as a new beginning. The old is behind you and the New Year is a blank page for you to write on. Jump in with enthusiasm.

11. Goal Set. Take stock of where you are and where you want to go. Are there projects or tasks you want to be a part of? Do you want to join a class or professional association? What steps do you need to take to get there? Write down the process and calendar it.

12. Update LinkedIn profile. Review it for needed changes. Use your goals to focus the content and attract the connections that will help you achieve them.

13. Organize your priorities. What is most important? Why? How will you keep that in focus? Learn how to use your time in the most productive way possible.

14. Choose your attitude. Make the New Year one of optimism, gratitude, focus, energy. Use this to create a brand and an expectation that you will produce great work.

15. Focus on the positive. Look at each negative with “What can I learn from this that will make me sharper, stronger, more resilient?” Don’t drag others down, lift them.

16. Capture your 2017 accomplishments. Going forward, track your successes. Make an email folder to hold records of your accomplishments. Quantify them and remember how they added value to the company.

When you apply these 16 principles, you’ll find that you naturally improve your work performance. You’re focused, organized, refreshed and connected. You know where you’ve been and where you want to go. Get set for a rewarding 2017!

Need help rejuvenating, organizing, or planning for your future? An executive coach can cut through the fog to clear answers.

Talkback:

What have you done to launch the next year ready to increase your performance? How effective do you think these tips will be for you?

The post The 16 Ways to Improve Your Work Performance In 2017 appeared first on Career Advancement Blog.

Be quiet! How to make sure you talk less and listen more!

“Wisdom is the reward you get for a lifetime of listening when you’d have preferred to talk.”

~ Doug Larson ~

Kevin is on the management fast track at a Fortune 500 company. He’s outgoing, friendly, never met a stranger. He sees himself as a real deal-maker. Yet a lot of people in Kevin’s world routinely keep their distance when he enters the room. Even some of his clients seem to shut down when he’s around. He doesn’t quite understand why others don’t see him the same way he sees himself.

In his recent 360 review, ten stakeholders did provide quality feedback to Kevin. These insights began to shed some light on the situation. Frankly, he just talks too much. His co-workers and managers see him as a bit of a phony, maybe someone who’s not as smart as he thinks he is, even as someone who’s not to be trusted. The main message he heard in the feedback was to talk less and listen more.

Kevin realized he needed to make some immediate changes. His first thought was “hire an executive coach” and he did exactly that. He knew that getting advice and feedback from a neutral third party could speed up and enhance his process of personal change dramatically.

Kevin’s coach was very specific. “In order to project confidence and speak with authority, you need to talk less and listen more. What you have, Kevin, (to quote Cool Hand Luke) is a failure to communicate.” Within a week after his executive coach was hired, the two of them created this 4-step plan:

1. For at least the first two weeks, don’t speak up in meetings at all, unless someone addresses you directly. Listen and take notes instead.

2. For the next two weeks, when you’re with clients or in a meeting, don’t speak up or offer opinions unless someone asks you. Instead ask questions, such as “Where did you find that information?” or “What do you think the outcome of that strategy would be?” Take notes on the answers.

3. Cultivate relationships with senior managers whose attitude and behavior you admire. Spend time with them and begin to model your communication style after theirs. Schedule regular coffee dates or informal meetings and ask for their advice and feedback.

4. After practicing the listening strategy for a month, gradually begin to speak up in meetings, offer new ideas to clients, and make low-key comments in groups or with other co-workers. Keep notes about how others are reacting to you now and adjust your strategy accordingly. Always, however, emphasize listening over speaking.

“Here’s the bottom line,” Kevin’s executive coach told him. “And this is what you hired me for! People don’t listen to you because they are too accustomed to your having something to say for every occasion. When you make a habit of talking less (or not at all), you’ll get their attention immediately when you do speak up.”

Six months later, Kevin felt that his implementation of the 4-step plan had totally changed how he was perceived in the company. He had his strategy of talking less and listening more.

Are the people you work with tuning you out? Take a look at your communication style and see how much time you spend talking rather than listening. Follow Kevin’s four-step plan, or hire an executive coach for assistance. Joel can provide some valuable suggestions. Why not email him today?

Talkback: Have you made successful changes in your communication style? How did you do it? Share your story here.

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How to Get Your Ideas Heard at Work

“When you learn how much you’re worth, you’ll stop giving people discounts.”

~ Anonymous ~

Client Nathan Asks: I am completely frustrated. As the client development manager for my firm, I am expected to be the “idea person” when it comes to new business development and client relations. And I think I have a ton of good ideas at work. But whenever I get into a staff meeting, my ideas–even my participation in discussions–are almost totally ignored. I’m not a “rah rah” sort of person and maybe that’s what people are expecting. I’m pretty low key and I feel I’m presenting good ideas—it’s just that nobody’s hearing me.

Coach Joel Answers: It’s not unusual for people in almost any role to sometimes have difficulty getting attention, let alone get their ideas accepted and implemented. Here are three things I think you should do right now to improve your acceptance ratio:

Build a support network
Support the ideas of your colleagues
Improve your presentation skills

1. Build a support network. The key to your success is to consult others and build support for big initiatives before you launch them. When you want to introduce a new strategy, schedule a series of one-on-ones with different people within the company—or even outside the company if that’s appropriate. Present your idea and ask for their thoughts, a critique of your plan, and listen. Incorporate what input you can, and you’ll stand a good chance of gaining their buy-in. Be selective about who you choose to hear your ideas. Pick thought leaders, people who have had success implementing their own ideas and whom you can trust to keep it confidential until you’re ready to go public.

2. Support the ideas of your colleagues. There are plenty of ways to increase your visibility in meetings, and one of the easiest ways is to say positive things about the work others are doing. While you’re planning your next big thing, begin to lay the groundwork for support by supporting others. If someone floats a new idea in staff meeting, find something to like about it and say so. You may even add a new piece to it, if that’s appropriate. It’s just simple psychology: people are more likely to support someone who they feel will support them. Pay a compliment after the fact as well: “That was a super idea for revamping the web page, Marcia. Let me know if I can help.”

3. Improve your personal presentation skills. It’s all about having executive presence. To do this, you’re going to have to move beyond your comfort zone. You’ve fallen into the trap of not speaking up because you’ve convinced yourself that nobody’s listening, or worse—that you don’t have any good ideas. Drop those thoughts and begin to practice communicating clearly and decisively. Do this before you bring anything to the table in a meeting. Use Power Point or other visuals to add some spark to your presentation. This will make you feel more confident because you’ll have the information you need right in front of you. And practice, practice, practice.

Right now you and your ideas are being seen in black and white. If you’ll start implementing these three strategies, it won’t be long before you’ll be showing off every idea in HD color.

Do you feel like the Invisible Man (or Woman?) Joel has helped hundreds of clients develop and implement plans for getting heard and getting their ideas accepted. Why not email him today?

Talkback: How do you gain acceptance for your ideas? Share your best strategies here.

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Executive Coaching Consultants Help with Job Dissatisfaction

“Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”

~ Michael Jordan ~

Marcia is stuck at the bottom of a very deep pit. She hates her job. She got hired at the bottom of the last recession and at that point, any job looked good, and this one looked even better than good. So she convinced herself this was a great move for her and five years later, she’d rather be anywhere but here. So what now? Just that morning she had watched a TV show where an executive coaching consultant was a featured guest. Marcia had never considered hiring a coach or consultant, but as a mid-level executive in a stagnant company, she was going nowhere fast. She began to focus on some of the ideas the coach presented. Marcia decided to take some of his advice and use her frustration to design a replacement strategy. She took his four key questions and started reworking them to fit her situation.

What don’t you like about your job right now?
If you kept your current job, what would you like to change?
How could you make those changes?
How badly do you want to change?

1. What don’t you like about your job right now? The first question was easy to answer. Morale in the company was awful. Sales were slumping and no one seemed to care. There was a new product introduction on the drawing board, but her boss hadn’t even brought it up for discussion in staff meeting. There had been no performance reviews or salary increases in almost two years. Rumors of downsizing and layoffs ran rampant, even though the company was still showing a profit.

2. If you kept your current job, what would you like to change? Marcia really didn’t want to quit her job. What she wanted was to get her enthusiasm back at work, to feel excited about the company and her prospects the way she had in the beginning. She wanted to see the company move ahead and grow. She realized that there were some things she could change, and some things she couldn’t. For example, she could volunteer to start a brainstorming group to get the new product introduction off the ground. She could even start an informal, off-site, after-hours group to discuss ways they could work together to improve company morale.

3. How could you make those changes? Marcia decided to take action on both of those ideas quickly, and to have them up and running within 30 days. First, she set up an appointment with her boss to discuss the new product launch. “I know you’re way too busy right now,” she said, “and this project is just adding more pressure. So if I can get together a brainstorming group, we can kick start it and give you some ideas to work with.” Her boss looked relieved at her suggestion and told her to move ahead immediately.

Marcia also began chatting informally with a group of like-minded co-workers, and they set up a happy hour talk fest offsite to discuss ideas for improving morale and helping the company move ahead.

4. How badly do you want to change? The executive coaching consultant had been very specific about this one: if you focus on the negative, you’ll get more negative. Instead, define the negative and then pivot to a positive. Focus on things that work, not things that don’t.

If you are feeling stuck, if you’re not where you want to be, don’t stay there. Use your negative feelings to get your mojo back. Take these positive steps to turn the job you have into the job you really wanted in the first place. If you’re having trouble getting yourself out of the pit, Joel may be able to help. He has guided thousands of clients as an executive coach consultant toward greater job satisfaction and career advancement. Why not email him today?

Talkback: Have you been successful at turning a negative job situation into a positive? How did you do it? Share your experience here.

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Help with Job Dissatisfaction appeared first on Career Advancement Blog.

Want New Ideas in Your Workplace? Here’s a four-point plan

“You can have results or you can have excuses. However, you cannot have both. What’s it gonna be?”

~ Stephen Luke ~

Client Jill Asks: “I just don’t get it. I put in longer hours than anyone in my department. I come to every team meeting and propose at least one creative, new initiative. But I’m just not getting through to anyone. No one notices how hard I work, and no one seems particularly interested in my ideas. And I’m sure not getting any face time with C-level managers. I know I’m missing something here. What is it?”

Coach Joel Answers: You’re focusing on the wrong thing. You’re a creative person, so it’s natural that you would focus on the creative part of your business—coming up with new ideas in your workplace, developing unique strategies for your company and your clients. But how are you presenting those? You keep trying to impress people with how creative you are. What you need to do is speak about your ideas in terms of results. Impress them with your outcomes, not your talents or your work ethic.

An article in the Harvard Business Review indicates that 69% of US employers judge their employees’ performance by what they accomplish rather than the hours on their time log. Many companies are removing the barriers of work time and place in order to retain top talent. Employees have the freedom to work when and how they want, as long as they are achieving their productivity goals. (Galinsky, November, 2012.) So let’s shift your focus from ideas to results. Here’s a four-point plan I recommend.

Be results-driven. When you present a new idea to your boss or your team, state the idea in just a sentence or two. Then go immediately to results. How much revenue will your strategy generate? How will it reduce expenses or improve client services? Give them specific numbers.


Give them a by-when. Tell them who’s going to do what and when it will be completed. Nothing can tarnish your shining reputation more than not finishing the job, even if you have to be satisfied with less-than-fabulous results. A runner would always rather finish the race, even if she comes in last, rather than drop out halfway through.


Consistently exceed expectations. If you present an idea and you get the green light from your boss or upper management, go the second (and third) mile to do even better than you said you would. For example, if your boss would be happy with an 8% or 9% increase in client satisfaction numbers, but you know you can bring it in at 10%, promise 8% and then go for 10%. Under-promise and over-deliver.


Act like a winner. Believe in your ideas and be confident when you present them. Don’t apologize. Act as if it’s already a done deal. Use confident language. Say “when,” not “if.” Avoid words like “maybe,” “possibly,” or “perhaps.” When you believe in yourself, your confidence will expand and you’ll find that others will begin to believe as well.

If you change your emphasis from ideas to results, I promise you’ll get a dramatically different result for yourself as well.

Are your brightest ideas falling on deaf ears? Do you want to be noticed , not overlooked? Joel’s strategies have worked for dozens of people. Email him for some new ideas today.

Talkback: Have you been successful at getting a new idea off the ground? How did you do it? Share your experience here.

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5-Step Plan to Developing Your Personal Brand

“Behavior is the mirror in which everyone shows their image.”

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~

Jason has been with his company for more than five years. He’s tried every trick in the book to get ahead, from letting his boss know he’d like to move up the ladder to working overtime on his projects in the hopes that his efforts would be noticed and rewarded.

But nothing seems to be working. He still has the same job, same title, and (sadly) the same salary as when he started five years ago. What’s Jason doing wrong?

Maybe Jason is not doing anything wrong; maybe he’s just doing the wrong things.

If you want to boost your personal brand, forget about dropping hints or hoping someone will notice the long hours you’re putting in. Those tactics will get you nowhere fast.

Luckily, one of the books Jason read as part of his effort to get ahead was a how-to book about career advancement. He decided to use some of his acquired knowledge to solve his own problem. Here’s what he came up with:

Step 1—Define the problem.

Jason’s first reaction was, “I’m being ignored. I deserve a promotion and I’m not getting one.”

Step 2 – State the cause of the problem.

This is an important step, because often when people try to solve problems, they are merely getting rid of the symptoms, not resolving the issue. After a bit of soul-searching, Jason realized that he really wasn’t doing what it takes to stand out in the crowd. Hard work is fine, but he needed a personal brand and he definitely did not have one.

Step 3 – Brainstorm.

Come up with potential actions you could take to turn the situation around. Jason talked to a few trusted friends outside his workplace and they gave him a number of useful suggestions and opinions.

Take on a project that nobody wants to do and finish it successfully.
Offer to work on a project outside your own department (with your boss’s approval, of course).
Schedule a one-on-one with your boss and ask for her input on a rebranding plan.
Find a mentor. This could be in your company or outside of it, but should be someone who’s ahead of you on the ladder (not your boss).
Share your successes. Don’t brag, and don’t be modest either. Speak up about your accomplishments. This includes what you’ve been doing, either in meetings, by e-mail, or one-on-one with others in the company.
Share credit. Nobody does it alone and you’ll get ahead more easily if you let others participate in your success.


Step 4 – Choose your options.

You don’t have to do everything all at once. Pick two or three things you can do right away. Jason took the first two suggestions on his list and wrote up a plan. Then he scheduled the one-on-one with his boss to get her input and suggestions. After refining his plan, he immediately began putting it into action.

Step 5 – Monitor your results and make changes if necessary.

Jason first volunteered to revamp an inventory control project that nobody else would touch, because it looked boring and complicated. He cleaned that up and then made a presentation about how he implemented a new plan and achieved results. With his boss’s approval, he sent a summary of his presentation to several C-level executives.

Five months after Jason implemented his rebranding campaign, he was offered a management position in another department—and a nice increase in salary to go with it.

If you’re stuck where you are right now, feeling unnoticed and unappreciated, (not to mention underpaid), how could you rebrand yourself? Look at Jason’s action items and see if you can adapt any of them to your situation. And be sure you’re solving the problem, not covering up the symptom. Joel has helped dozens of clients boost their careers with personal branding. Email him today.

Talkback: Have you successfully rebranded yourself? What did you do and what were the results? Share your experience here.

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Get a Bonus at Work | 5 Ways to Set Yourself Up

“There is no substitute for hard work.”

~ Thomas Edison ~

Client Susan Asks: I thought I was going to get a nice bonus… and then it didn’t happen. How can I set myself up for a really well-deserved bonus?

Coach Joel Answers: Susan, you know of your worth and value. You’re adding to the company and you can see your contributions. So the key is to maximize your contributions, quantify them, and share them. Let’s discuss each one.

1. Understand Your Unique Skill Set. Stop and think about your combination of talents, skills, and personality. There are some things you do better than anyone around you. This gives you one-of-a-kind attributes. So evaluate what they are. Perhaps you:

Offer effective ideas
Build consensus
Warn of hidden problems
Work hard

You may want to ask co-workers what they see as your strengths. Once you understand these skills, build to your strengths.

2. Focus on Adding Value. You want to find that sweet intersection where your skills can add the most value to the company. Look for ways you can measurably increase the company’s bottom line. Find a way to connect the dots between your work and the business’s profit. That will help you… and others see your true contribution.

3. Gather Information to Prove Your Case. Keep track of what you do. Note projects completed and how you’ve helped the company. See if you can find statistics that show your hard work. You may also collect praise and commendations from co-workers, subordinates, and bosses.

4. Hedge Your Bets. Don’t assume you know what it takes to qualify for a bonus… or that others know about your work. First, learn your company’s policies about bonuses. Do they have written criteria? Is it up to the boss? If so, discuss it with him or her. You need to know what you must do to qualify.

Second, consider why they may not want to offer you a bonus. Did a group project not do as well as expected? Did you have a change in leadership and they may not know your track record well enough? After you look at possible roadblocks, take the time to overcome those objections. Be prepared to explain or come up with a work-around the limitation.

5. Insure Others Know Your Good Work. Don’t be pushy or obnoxious about self-promotion. On the other hand, you must make sure others know what you are doing. They need to understand the value you are bringing to the workplace. Your mentor should know of your work.

Discuss current projects with your boss and co-workers. Send emails to keep them in the loop. As you keep them up to date, they’ll see your valuable work.

Then, when bonus time comes around, you’ll be in line to get the bonus you deserve.

Want to insure you get a bonus ? Contact Joel for personal help to advance your career and win that bonus.

Talkback: What have you found that helped you get the bonus you wanted?

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How To Be A Great Mentor: 5 Traits to Cultivate Now

“I am not a teacher, but an awakener.”

~ Robert Frost ~

Randy is more than a little anxious. He’s been moving ahead rapidly on the fast track with his company and he knows that his C-level managers see him as an emerging leader. Now, however, his boss has just presented him with a new challenge: mentor two employees who have just joined the firm. Randy has had a few good mentors in the past, but there’s a big difference between having one and being one. And he hasn’t been one since he tutored his girlfriend in math when they were high school seniors. He needs to be ready in two weeks. What to do first?

Like all creative leaders, Randy begins to brainstorm and research. Within a few hours, he has the outline of a game plan and knows exactly what he needs to do to become a great mentor:

Develop a servant mentality
Ask the right questions
Cultivate their strengths
Model executive presence
Put them in the spotlight

1. Develop a servant mentality. The mentee is the star of your little show, so always keep him or her in the limelight. They may not be comfortable there, at least in the beginning. Every actor has butterflies on opening night, after all. Your job is to cheerlead, comfort, and encourage. And stay in the background.

2. Ask the right questions. Robert Ridel, in his book Critical Thinking for Everyday Life, says that “to question is to understand.” Probing, open-ended questions often lead other people to discover answers and ideas that they didn’t know they had. Always approach questioning from the positive point of view:

Why do you think that worked so well?
What would you do differently next time?
If you were the client, what questions would you ask?

3. Cultivate their strengths. Being in a new position, or with a new company, is challenging in itself. Fear of failure may lie pretty close to the surface. Now is the time to remind your mentee of what she or he has already accomplished. They landed this job, didn’t they? And that was based on a track record of prior successes. Get them to talk about those successes and how to translate them into the current environment. This doesn’t mean you should ignore the downside. As George Lucas said, when discussing Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones, “Mentors have a way of seeing more of our faults than we would like. It’s the only way we grow.” You can see both sides but always accentuate the positive.

4. Model executive presence. You already have the right skills and attitude. That’s why you were chosen to become a mentor. You are not only talented, you create an impact when you enter the room. You know how to influence others, and you consistently provide added value to every project you manage. Always demonstrate these traits when working with your mentees. Come from a place of teaching, not from ego. 

Good approach: “We just made a really successful presentation. Why do you think it worked?”

Not so good: “Wow! That was fantastic. I just love it when I knock it out of the park.”

5. Put them in the spotlight. When your mentee scores a win, give him the credit. Let him know when he hits a home run. Don’t hesitate to brag to your peers and C-level executives about what a great job he’s doing. Then use that win as a foundation for continuing to grow.

Six months after Randy took on his first two mentees, he was asked to develop a mentoring model to be implemented company-wide. Today, mentoring is a way of life, based on the initial plan he put together.

Are you about to become a mentor? Or are you already a mentor and need some new ideas to motivate your mentees? Email Joel today for his suggestions.

Talkback: Have you successfully mentored employees or others in your industry? What tips would you like to share with our readers?

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4 Daily Habits That Build Good Working Relationships

“If everyone is moving forward together, then success takes care of itself.”

~ Henry Ford ~

Client Paul asks: One of my coworkers recently told me I’m hard to approach at work. It felt like kind of a blow, since I’ve always thought of myself as being a nice person. How can I change this impression my coworkers have of me?

Coach Joel answers: Paul, developing good relationships is a key part of succeeding at work, yet it’s often neglected. Do you ever have days where you keep your nose to the grindstone, churning out work—and feel like slamming shut your door on anyone who dares interrupt? This kind of attitude actually hurts your own productivity as well as your organization’s. Building good working relationships will help you become a more effective leader, boost your chances of promotion, enhance teamwork, and make you a happier person. These 8 daily habits will help you get there.

1. Communicate clear goals and expectations.

When you communicate clearly—and follow through—you show you’re a trustworthy person. Set clear goals and benchmarks for what you’ll accomplish in projects and your overall job performance, and help those you supervise to do the same. Choose the best medium for your communications, too. If sharing a complicated list of instructions, share it by email or as a hard copy in addition to going over it in person.

2. Share appreciation for others.

Noticing others’ contributions, large or small, will give them a more positive image of you. If others are feeling constantly judged or critiqued, it will be difficult for them to engage in creative, collaborative thinking with you. Knowing they are valued will help them share ideas more freely. Sharing your appreciation also conveys a positive attitude, which exudes confidence in your team.

3. Spend one-on-one time with team members.

Getting to know coworkers will help you develop good relationships at work. The one-on-one time also promotes openness and collaboration. Go to lunch with someone from a different department, who might have skills that will be useful for a future project. Have coffee with a coworker you haven’t developed a rapport with, and find out what you have in common. Just knowing you care enough to make this time will help break the ice.

4. Address interpersonal problems directly.

If tension is brewing or you have a difficult relationship with a co-worker, address it at the source before the problem gets bigger. If you feel that a team member is not pulling his weight, voice your concerns to him and state your expectations. Keep your tone calm and professional, and give him time to explain his perspective. Through direct communication, you may discover that the real problem is that he doesn’t understand his role, or that he’s wearing too many hats in the organization. Confronting the communication difficulty directly is one of the quickest ways to create good working relationships.

By adopting these daily habits, you’ll increase your coworkers’ respect and confidence in you. . Fortunately, they’re called “habits” for a reason—as you start doing these things on a daily basis, you’ll naturally remember to do them in more situations and with more of the people you encounter.

Try using at least two of these habits per day for the next week. Take notes on how people respond, and email Joel with follow-up questions about your results.

Talkback: Have you found these tips useful in your workplace? Do you have others you’d like to share? Post your ideas below!

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