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What to do When You’ve Got Big Shoes to Fill

By on Monday, October 10, 2011

Bigshoestofill_october2011_web Everybody has to start somewhere. No matter what you do in your career, there will always be at least one first day at work. You could have several first days depending on what opportunities you choose. One thing that can make those first days in the workplace difficult is when you find out that the person you replaced was a highly popular company legend.

It’s not always easy filling in the shoes of the company favorite. With so many professionals spending more of their time at work, strong relationships are being built with co-workers and a new employee can sometimes be seen as an intrusion, or an outsider. You’ll need time to develop relationships and become a valued member of the team.

Here are some things to remember and put into practice so you can demonstrate to your peers and managers that you are worthy of the job, no matter who came before you.

Patience is a Virtue.

It can take time to fit in. You won’t be able to shake the “new guy” stigma overnight. Everybody was the new kid on the block at some point in their career. Be patient with your fellow co-workers and their loyalty to the former employee. It would be easy to vent frustrations about the cluttered and backwards filing system the previous favorite left you, but being respectful of the former employee will earn respect from your peers. 

Take the time to ask questions. Ask why things are done the way they were, and request feedback from those around you. With a little hard work and dedication, you can be a valuable asset to your team.

Be Yourself.

The former colleague left a special place in the minds of those at the workplace that only he or she can fill. It’s impossible for you to fit into that role, so don’t even try. This is your opportunity to create your own memories and circle of influence so your team members will remember you for your unique contributions to the company. 

You have your own personality, qualifications, and skill sets, and you need to demonstrate these to your co-workers. Figure out what needs you can meet with your various talents, and develop your own goals and objectives. Write a list of things you can offer that no one else can, then figure out how to focus within your new role.

Ease Into the New.

Changes can be met with resistance and hesitation, especially if they differ from the way they’ve been done before. Consider taking your new ideas one chunk at a time and ease your colleagues into them. Don’t push all of your new and brilliant ideas into practice all at the beginning. That will cause more friction among your team no matter how good the ideas may be.

You can also earn team approval by recognizing other’s ideas. When getting to know your fellow workers, find out what kind of changes they would like to see. Maybe some of them never spoke up because they were getting in the way of the former company legend.

Coming to a new job when your co-workers have a preconceived expectation can be frightening. But, if you just be yourself instead of trying to be someone you’re not, you can become a valuable asset to your company and earn respect from your co-workers based on your own merits.

Have you replaced an office favorite? What have you done to make your own contributions to your job?

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At Work Benefits Career Advancement Salary and Promotions

Understand “The Numbers” in Your Job: Part 2

By on Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Numbers_Performance_August2011_web In part one of “The Numbers” series, we focused on how you become informed about the numbers that matter in your company. The next step in understanding the metrics that impact your career is evaluating your own performance and how it can be measured.

Let the Numbers Add to Your Job Search
When stating your abilities, whether it’s on your résumé or your LinkedIn profile, it’s best to focus on achievements and give qualifying information as often as possible. For your résumé, state how many boxes per hour you can build or how many new clients you brought into the company per month instead of just stating your skills. When you are pursuing a new job, understand that potential employers are comparing your skills against other candidates. Presenting your abilities in a way that demonstrates the value you would add to their team can help you stand out as the best candidate for the job. This type of information will also give you a good point to elaborate on during interviews.

It can also be helpful to measure your performance during a job search. When searching for a job, take a look at what your activity is yielding. Do you schedule one interview for every 10 applications or is it one interview per every 25 applications? Understanding what to expect can help motivate your job search activity.

Tracking Your Productivity 
In a current position, make sure your goals are measurable and that you understand how they are being tracked, who is tracking them, and how often your performance will be reviewed. When you are negotiating a raise or asking for help in managing your workload, you’ll need to be able to clearly demonstrate your job performance.

While taking the time to analyze your job performance can seem counter productive to getting work done, it is time well-invested.  By understanding the number of hours a project took, the number of phone calls it took to make a sale, or rate of return on an investment, you’ll be able to forecast what it will take to meet your goals and where resources should be allocated. Make sure you talk with your manager about areas of concern where your resource investment is not yielding the best results and what measurements are most important to your job.

Now that we’ve covered how to become informed about the metrics that matter and how to measure your own performance, next we’ll cover why tracking your job activity can result in a celebration.

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At Work Career Advancement The Daily Grind

Understand “The Numbers” in Your Job: Part 1

By on Friday, August 19, 2011

Numbers_GetInformed_August2011_web When crafting a résumé, preparing for a performance review, or reporting in the weekly staff meeting, knowing what key metrics are used to measure the performance of your company and your job is critical. It can be easy to detach yourself from company figures and reports, especially if you don’t see how your job impacts critical measurements. In a changing economy, understanding benchmarks of success and current checkpoint data can help you gauge the future direction of a company. This can be important if you’re evaluating companies to work for, or if you’re curious about the state of your current employer. In this three part series of on understanding the numbers in the workplace we’ll talk about how to tackle the numbers that relate to success in your career.

Get Informed
You’ve likely heard that knowledge is power, and when it comes to knowing your company’s sales figures and production reports, that definitely holds true. Taking time to understand how your company measures success and what records it has achieved will help you see the bigger picture of your organization. This type of information is also good to research before an interview and can be the basis for questions you may want to ask a potential employer. If you are currently employed, try checking out your company intranet or employee newsletter for this type of data. You could also ask your manager about company measurements. Chances are, they’ll be impressed with your desire to better understand the organization. When researching potential employers, check out the media relations section of their corporate website for news or earnings releases.

Find Meaning in the Numbers
For any sort of data to have meaning, you need something to measure it against. For example, if you type 42 words per minute, it’s important to know that the average ratefor transcription typing is 33 words per minute and an average professional typist achieves 50 to 80 words per minute. Without knowing what you’re measuring your skill against, it’s hard to know how good it is. Ask your manager what the standard is in production timelines and what the company is currently averaging. You can seek information about records set in your own company, maybe the highest sales figure for a quarter or largest client order. Those measurements can have additional perspective if, for example, you know your top two competitor companies and what their figures are for highest sales in a quarter. 

Up next in this series we’ll discuss how you measure your own performance and  why it’s important to your career that you celebrate your measured success.

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At Work Career Advancement Work/Life Balance

How to Be Punctual

By on Wednesday, August 17, 2011

HowtobePunctual_August2011_web We recently showed the benefits of avoiding tardiness. Now that you know why it’s important to be on time, this post will show you some tips and tricks to help keep you on time.

Address The Clock 
In most cases, the first step to overcoming a problem is admitting that it is indeed a problem. In this instance, the problem is being late or missing deadlines. If you find yourself continually rushing, chances are your tardiness is a problem. Take notice of how often you are late and consider the negative implications it can have on your career development.

Be Aware of Your Time
If you don’t already wear a watch, get one. Make sure it is synced with your computer, phone, car, and any other clocks that you’re around. Losing track of time can be one of the biggest reasons you are late. Setting your clocks ahead can be helpful, but be sure you don’t only rely on a clock running early to get you there on time. A true commitment to being on time is required.

Be aware of how long a task will take. When working on a big project consider setting up check points to ensure you will meet the final deadline. If you are working on a deadline driven project this is also the time to conduct research and to seek input to guarantee the best finished product. Keep track of how long it takes you to do tasks like dress for work, walk across your building for a meeting, or drive to a client’s location for future reference.

Be conscious of what you spend your time on. Reading the paper or surfing the Internet can become quick time traps. Just 10 minutes checking emails can quickly turn into half an hour or more. Stick to your allotted times for a given task and move on to the next meeting or project to prevent your day from getting out of control.

Plan Ahead
It’s not a good idea to assume everything will go smoothly. There’s a chance you won’t hit every green light on the way to work, so don’t leave your promptness up to chance. Try adding a 10-minute buffer to allow for the unexpected, along with planning on being 15-minutes early for everything you do. Would it be so bad to be early for things? The benefits outweigh the negatives, and you can always bring paperwork, read a book, or take advantage of your smartphone’s capabilities while you wait.
 
Plus, if you are working ahead of schedule on your projects, it allows time in your day to help out your co-workers or your boss. An opportunity to help others allows you to build your skills and deepen relationships within the workplace, but you need to make sure you have time to do so without harming your own schedule.

Be Ready To Go
Do not hit the snooze button and drift back to sleep. Have you ever taken a nap only to wake up even more tired than before? The same principle applies. Sit your alarm clock across the room if you have to, but resist the urge to hit snooze. Your body will adjust and get used to the new routine and you’ll begin to reap the benefits of getting adequate rest.

Prepare the night before to make your morning go smooth. If you’ve got children consider choosing clothes, gathering schoolwork, and packing lunches the night before to make getting out the door easier. Check to make sure your own work attire is clean and ready to go. Your peers can tell when you were running late and didn’t have time to iron your clothes or fix your hair. 

The first step in being on time is to admit you have a problem with running behind. From there you can start to take control of your schedule.

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At Work Career Advancement

The Benefits of Being Punctual

By on Friday, August 12, 2011

BeingPunctual_August2011_web You can run late or miss a deadline for a variety of reasons. “The alarm didn’t go off,” or “I hit every red light on the way to work.” Whatever the reason, you can take control of being punctual. If you were headed to an important interview, you would probably take traffic into consideration and show up well in advance. But sometimes it’s hard to treat every workday or deadline as if it were an important interview.

Unfortunately, constantly being late can send the wrong message to co-workers and your employer. Some see being late as a disregard for company policy. Others may believe you are late because you are disorganized. These messages can translate into assumptions about your character and work ethic. For example if they think you are late because you are disorganized, you may not be considered for leading a big project with a tight deadline.

Here are a few good reasons to be early or on time that can have a positive impact on your image in the workplace.

Building Respect
Respect is a big thing in the workplace. Being constantly late, whether its to work, to a meeting, or with a project, is rude to your co-workers, manager, and clients. Being late is seen as disrespectful and that image can be difficult to recover from professionally. When you are on time you show your respect for the policies of your employer, as well as the time of peers and leaders. 

Being Reliable
This isn’t high school and your boss is not your teacher, so resist the urge to be the cool kid that comes in late and slacks off. On the flip side, showing up early does not mean that you are trying to show up your co-workers that might struggle with being on time. Try not to get caught up in who is showing up on time for work or returning quick from lunch. Unless you are a manager, all you need to worry about is your own punctuality. Don’t worry, people will notice that you are always on time and that they can count on your dependability. You’ll know your reputation for being on time has had a positive impact when people start to rely on your departure from your desk to signal them its time for the weekly staff meeting.

Relieving Stress
Apart from the normal stressors of a workday, always having to rush because you are running late will compound stress. It can just pile on – being late can mean having to park far away, which causes you to be even later by having to walk further to your building, etc. – and it’s not a good way to start your morning off. Once you get into a routine of being on time you may find the rest of your calendar falling into place. You should be scheduling your day, not reacting to a schedule imposed upon you. 

Clearing Your Mind
When you are running late all the time or pushed up against a deadline, you don’t have time to think. To foster creativity you need to allow yourself time to problem solve and brainstorm. Working ahead of schedule allows you time to develop alternative solutions or try out a few ways of completing a task before having to meet a deadline or turn in something you don’t feel totally finished with.

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