Your reputation is everything, Protect it, Be Competent
You need intelligent people you can work with, whether in your company or in a partner organization. And they don’t need to be rocket-scientist intelligent, just smart enough to understand your business and engage with you to figure out how to do things better. But the value is in the ongoing interaction and teamwork, not a wooden worker/manager reporting line model.
It’s depressing to see many people who simply cannot modify their work style in today’s environment. Social intelligence is being able to analyze your own behaviour and create definitive actions to improve it. That messing about on LinkedIn and Twitter, those are tools that can help develop your own collaborative personality, but the ultimate collaborator is YOU.
Here are six takeaways here we all need to think about for the good of our careers:
1) Stop the constant whining. Is it any coincidence that some people flit from employer to employer and always have something to whine about? They always know better than their bosses, love to complain about their mistakes, their poor management, how underpaid they are etc. Over the years, it’s always the same story, always the same whining. But recognize the common thread — smart people don’t really like working with the whiners. Negativity breeds negativity, which is the worst demotivator. So take a good look at yourself, truly figure out why you’re unhappy and do something about it. The chances are your whining is because there are elements outside of your work environment that need fixing, not within them.
2) Spend more time getting to know people. Don’t make it all about work. Find out more about your colleagues, clients and partners. Find the right ways to interact with them — some like using the phone, others like texting, others face to face sessions etc. We have so many social tools at our disposal — use them!
3) Collaborate with your colleagues and put your ego aside. I bet you also know several people who claim to be really “collaborative” but really aren’t at all. Collaborating is about sharing work, sharing experiences, learning from each other. It’s not always about being the smartest person in the room and inviting them to that room. Sometimes is about creating the room for everyone to be smart together.
4) Be transparent. Nothing irks people more than finding things out about their colleagues that were a complete surprise. Be more open, let people in a bit — and they will likely do the same with you. Everyone’s human — we all have stresses at home, at work etc. Share them a bit. If you have issues with your boss, then clear the air (over a drink even better…). Transparency is critical for your long term reputation and career. If a job is not working for whatever reason, address it and it may improve. No one ever got fired for airing their issues and trying to fix them collaboratively with their colleagues.
5) Speak up! Management always appreciates staff voicing up in team calls to improve things / suggest new ideas. If you don’t do this, everyone’s wasting their time. It’s not as if you have nothing to add, you always do!
6) Be honest with yourself. Finally, if you’re not motivated by your work, then that’s your problem, not your company’s. True, they may suck, but if you aren’t inspired by the work or the people around you, find answers, and find them fast. If the work doesn’t motivate you, you’re in the wrong profession, if your colleagues don’t motivate you then try to motivate them by actioning the steps above. If that fails, then leave… go somewhere which appreciates you and motivates you.
What’s more, there is nowhere to hide anymore — if you repeatedly behave badly, back-stab, lie etc. Your reputation will spread across the digital and social networks like it never did in the past. When smart future employers check you out, it’s so easy to find former colleagues to conduct informal background checks. There is no hiding anymore, so prepare yourself for the socially intelligent workforce, or scramble for one of those fast-disappearing legacy jobs, where you can hide away for years, unnoticed by the world.
Your ability to interact with people, applying intelligence and creativity to your craft, is where you add value
People, increasingly, want to work with people they like and people who spark positive energy, first and foremost, as technology continually makes jobs more sophisticated and intelligent.
1. You don’t need an accountant to tell you about your monthly revenues because we now have software that can do this easily. What you need is an accountant who can talk you through the nuances of sun-setting a legacy product and its impact on my profit line.
2. And you don’t need a lawyer who can create employment contracts — you can pull those online for free, but you need a lawyer who can talk through the nuances of creating incentive plans to motivate your staff.
3. You don’t need a web developer who can integrate a few databases — most of these new websites come with them already native to the package. You need a developer who can help design the sexiest website ever to embarrass competitors.
4. You don’t need content people who just check the boxes to fill content space — you can get content produced anywhere these days (and even automated) you need content people who want to exchange ideas on creating content that gets noticed and read by clients.
5. You don’t need marketing people just to send out email-push campaigns — You need ones who can help you figure out which conferences to go to, how to associate your brand with the right partners, how to use social media more intelligently, how to create communities among your clients etc.
This article really gets to the heart of the issue with many companies today. Most people have the intelligence to apply good ideas to their firms, they just need to work smarter and more collaboratively.
