Today's post comes to us from Workforce Institute board member Alexandra Levit.

I recently chatted with my friend and colleague Laurie Ruettimann, who has spent decades as a human resources and workforce thought leader and has brought her wisdom and candor to the new book Betting on You: Put Yourself First and (Finally) Take Control of Your Career.


Alexandra: In the book, you talk a lot about advocating for yourself and your career. Why is this critical, and what's the #1 mistake you see people make as they proceed in their careers?


Laurie: When I was new to Corporate America, I thought the purpose of work was to show up, dazzle my bosses with excellent skills, and get paid a lot of money for my efforts. It didn't take long to learn that work is all about solving problems. If you solve complex challenges, you ascend the career ladder faster and earn more money.


Because I had student debt to pay, I threw myself into my job. I learned the hard way that peak performance requires a commitment to continuous learning, relentless focus on well”being, and the self”confidence to take risks with your professional life. Nobody can do anything remarkable at work if they are mentally and physically exhausted and afraid to jeopardize their paychecks.


What makes career pivoting challenging in the 21st century? What are some of the greatest opportunities?

We are living in a time of economic insecurity, and I'm not just talking about COVID”19. First, most traditional careers still make you start from the bottom. So, if you want to move from a role in human resources to nursing, you essentially have to start over with your education and certifications. Sure, there are accelerated programs available in some industries. But a pivot is often time”intensive and expensive. If you have family or financial obligations, it's an unrealistic burden to bear. Also, automation and digitization are rapidly transforming specific sectors of our economy. It's hard to pivot when the future is so uncertain.

The good news is that we're living in the golden age of learning. You can attend the "University of the Internet" and research the heck out of your desired career path. It's also possible to take free online courses or connect with industry thought leaders on various social media platforms before investing your time and money. With a bit of time and energy, the future can be less risky for those thinking about making a career move.

Do women still have it much tougher in the business world? What are things career”driven women can do to even the playing field?

Yes, it's more challenging to be a woman in business. What's more frustrating is that we've been talking about equal pay for equal work for a long time. I'm not sure career”driven women can level the playing field, nor is it their responsibility. This effort falls squarely on the shoulders of HR. I'm thrilled that total rewards technology is finally getting its time in the spotlight. Using artificial intelligence and integrating machine learning into a robust HCM suite, it's now possible to analyze the entire employee lifecycle and glean insights on the employee experience in a new way.

For example, we no longer have to wait for someone to submit an annual employee survey and tell us that they're disengaged and upset by discrimination, pay inequality, bias, or lack of belonging. We can see employee data in real time, compare it to overall trends, and address those concerns proactively. And we no longer have to wait for anybody, man or woman, to tell us that they're not earning enough or progressing fast enough in their careers. HR can know about an employee's obstacles and barriers before they even know themselves – and we can fix it. How cool is that?


How can HR reps and managers better support people in their professional development goals?

For so long, professional development was a company”driven endeavor focused on training workers to improve their current roles. If a manager was progressive, maybe he threw in some classes to help an employee get a promotion.

Thankfully, HR and managers have slowly accepted the radical idea that investing in a worker's future career path means greater productivity today. That's because the happiest and most engaged employees are learning, growing, and thriving.

No job is forever. Workers won't stay with your company for their entire careers. But they'll do a better job today if you create a learning plan that focuses on the future regardless of where they might be employed.


A BIG thank you to Laurie for sharing her thoughts with me. Whether you want to get ahead yourself, or help others get ahead in the most effective way, Laurie can help. Check out Betting on You and her other career resources on her website.

Today's post comes to us from Workforce Institute board member Martin Armstrong, Vice President of Payroll Shared Services for Charter Communications.

From the very beginning of my professional career, I've been intellectually curious about successful people. What makes them successful? What skills do they have that set them apart from the pack? What qualities do they possess - or possess more of - than other, less successful people?

From 2000 to 2012, I researched critical skillsets of successful leaders, and compared those skillsets against common characteristics that I identified from interviewing CEOs, business executives, entrepreneurs, and leaders of nonprofit organizations.   

Over a period of time, five skillsets consistently emerged as critical in enabling successful leaders to transition their jobs, which were merely paid positions that afforded them with regular employment, into significant careers that have stood the test of time, technology, innovation, and agility.  

These 5 skillsets are: Communication, Competency, Embracing Technology, Emotional Intelligence, and Financial Acumen. I refer to these skillsets as “2 Cs, 2 Es, and 1 F”, and can personally attest to the fact that I would not be an executive for a Fortune 100 company without them. 

So, without further ado, here they are:

  1. Communication - It's hard to imagine anyone having a successful career without the ability to effectively communicate. Communication is a Latin word that means “to share”. Whether your communication is written, verbal, or social media-driven, communication is the key to informing, soliciting, deciding, persuading, influencing, motivating, and inspiring others. In short: it's the key to almost everything.
  2. Competency - If you want to remain relevant in your chosen field, you must be able to demonstrate the ability to perform your job at the highest possible level. Competency also includes your knowledge of business skills - you should be able to think and act strategically, and your actions should help drive performance that equals results. Leadership skills are also a necessary competency to make optimal decisions and manage change, particularly in a competitive and ever-changing environment. The combination of Competency, Business Skills, and Leadership Skills is a Competency Framework that describes the performance excellence that successful people exhibit on a consistent basis.
  3. Embracing Technology - When you embrace technology, you accept and support technological advancement. If you choose to reject technology, you will surely be left behind. Technology's impact on innovation and business processes is undeniable and the empirical research regarding the adoption of technological advances is staggering. The Internet of Things (IoT), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Bots are not just acronyms, but types of automation that are used in every industry and nearly every cross functional job that involves repetitive actions. Embracing technology will allow you to work smarter and not harder.
  4. Emotional Intelligence (EQ) - In 1995, internationally known psychologist Daniel Goleman authored a book called Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ”. Goleman defines Emotional Intelligence (EQ) as the ability to identify, assess, and control one's own emotions, the emotions of others, and that of groups. Goleman's 5 Pillars of Emotional Intelligence include: Self-Awareness, Self-Regulation, Motivation, Empathy, and People Skills.  Dr. Travis Bradberry runs an Emotional Intelligence Lab called TalentSmart and is the author of an award-winning book called “Emotional Intelligence 2.0”. Bradberry's research suggests that 90% of top performers have a high EQ, 58% of your job performance is attributable to your EQ, and people with a high EQ make $29,000 more annually than their low EQ counterparts.  Successful people practice emotional intelligence strategies until they become a habit, and their long, sustaining careers are a direct beneficiary of such efforts.
  5. Financial Acumen - You most certainly do not have to become a CPA to possess financial acumen, but you should understand how your actions contribute to the financial statements of your organization. Having financial acumen involves a basic understanding of four financial statements: the Income Statement (a statement of income less expenses = net income), Retained Earnings Statement (the amount of net income left after paying dividends), the Balance Sheet (reports a company's assets, liabilities, and shareholder's equity), and the Cash Flow Statement (shows cash inflows and outflows from operations, investments, and financing).  As individuals, we know how to manage our monthly household budgets (Income Statement), save for a rainy day (Retained Earnings), understand what assets we own and who we owe (Balance Sheet), and what sources we receive and spend cash from (Cash Flow). We simply need to translate this understanding onto financial statements using financial terms. Successful people understand the importance of financial acumen as it is essential to execute a strategic plan, and to impact a company's growth and profitability.

Applying these five skillsets will take practice, commitment, and a level of effort that should outweigh any barriers that would prevent you from reaching your maximum potential. If nothing else, always remember that if you do not control your own destiny, someone else will. Should you bring this all together, you too will say that you have transitioned your job into a career. 

Today's post comes to us from Workforce Institute board member and Skeptical Guy, John Hollon. 

Here's a lesson I keep learning over and over: You need to sit up pay close attention when somebody does something wildly out of character.

Have a calm and reasoned friend who suddenly goes off and gets loud and crazy over something? When that happens, you need to focus on what they're saying because people don't just suddenly change their character.

Whatever is causing that to happen is probably something important that you REALLY want to know about.

This is true for organizations, too, and that's why I pay close attention when a solid one like Gallup says that when it comes to performance management:

"It's time to burn the boats, leave old performance practices behind, and create a performance management strategy that is adaptive, responsive and calibrated to the new workplace."


Time to burn the boats? Like what Hernán Cortés did to motivate his men when he began his conquest of Mexico? That's something I would expect from a crazy HR blogger and not from a highly respected research giant.

The sorry state of performance management

What got Gallup spouting off was the very thing that organizations everywhere complain about -- the sorry state of performance management. There's nothing new about that, of course, and back in 2013, I reported that only 28 percent of companies thought they were doing performance management well.

But Gallup has more urgent concerns, and now they're making the case that:

"The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown performance management systems into chaos. ...How do you make performance goals fair and meaningful in this topsy-turvy, ever-changing, uncertain-future environment? ...Before the pandemic, many organizations believed they had modernized their performance management system. But now, the boardroom buzzword "agility" has finally become an urgent need. Whatever happens, you can be certain that the marketplace will be shifting for many months, if not years."


Gallup is right about performance management being a big problem, but it's not because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

No, performance management is still an issue because a great many organizations, and managers at all levels, have never really taken performance management terribly seriously.

That's what happens when the process of helping people improve and grow becomes just another task for overworked managers to squeeze in among all the other things they're responsible for.

It's what companies get when they take what should be THE most important thing for supervisors to focus on, and instead, turn it into just another managerial task.

Gallup does dig into what they define as "the Three Essential Characteristics of Modernized Performance Management," and while that sounds good, I don't find these "essential characteristics" of performance management to be all that different from what has been done before.

Here are the "essential characteristics" from Gallup. See what you think. They are:

They may sound good, but ask yourself, is this is a "burn the boats" strategy for better performance management?

You know the answer to that -- No, it's just a tinkering and streamlining of what organizations should have been doing with performance management all along.

The answer is actually pretty simple

The most relevant characteristic is No. 2, because "ongoing conversations, timely recognition, and informal dialogue on a weekly basis" has been a critically important part of managing people for a very long time.

The problem has been that not enough leaders and managers take the time to spend more time with their team, and having those conversations, informal dialogue, and the recognition of good work.

Great performance management isn't hard, but it does take time and consistent effort. The more time a manager spends with people, the more time the people want, and the better work they do. Most managers know this, but most managers also seem to always have something more important to do than deal with performance management.

In the end, what Gallup has done is wake us up by a call to "burn the boats" so that we would pay attention to the fact that, other than a little modernizing, great performance management is really just about more focus and face time with your people.

That's all it is -- time consuming, but simple when you get right down to it. Let's hope more leaders listen and heed Gallup's call.

Today's post comes to us from Workforce Institute board member, Mark Wales. Here he discusses the career ladder problem of the broken rung.

The annual Women in the Workplace study conducted by LeanIn.org and the consulting firm McKinsey & Company was recently released. This study - comprised of 329 companies that employ 13 million people - brands itself as the largest analysis of the state of women in corporate America and provides a deep dive into their experiences in the workforce as the fight for gender parity continues.

One of the more interesting findings of this year's study is that, contrary to the popular narrative, it is not the “glass ceiling” that is keeping women from the top, but a "broken rung" much lower down on the corporate ladder. The report finds that when women miss out on that first promotion into management, they then play a game of catch up with fewer and fewer women competing for each subsequent elevated position. In fact, for every 100 men promoted and hired to management, only 72 women are. As a result, men end up holding 62% of manager positions, with women holding just 38%.

The Milgard School of Business, part of the University of Washington Tacoma, has an interesting new program to try to help solve this problem. The Milgard Women's Initiative (MWI) mentorship program harnesses the power of experienced executives to help students prepare for the challenges of the workplace. The mission of the MWI is to advocate for all women and, in collaboration with people around the world, to engage women as creative and innovative leaders throughout their organizations and communities. The mentorship program is an opportunity for students to partner with a senior professional in the local community to share experience and wisdom. The mentorship program features group networking sessions as well as monthly one-on-one meetings. A curriculum of suggested readings and discussion prompts is provided to the participants, giving them three themes to work through during the academic year. The themes are leading through influence, communication differences between men and women, and giving and receiving feedback.

This program is a great example of not just how aspiring students can help themselves, but also a concrete way for current or retired executives to provide support for future generations of industry leadership. If we look back on our careers we all recognize people who - whether formally or informally - gave us support, guidance and coaching. We wouldn't have achieved many of our successes without those insights and practical help.

I would recommend that we all consider how we can help aspiring young managers. It may be within your own organization or, as with the Milgard School of Business, though a local educational or non-profit organization.

Did a mentor make a difference in your career? Tell us about it in the comments section.

Today's post comes to us from board member China Gorman. Here she shares her perspective on how HR professionals can advance their careers as they accelerate their global mindset.

As today's business environment becomes ever more global, HR professionals in small, medium and large organizations are asking how to develop the required global mindset while attending to their everyday responsibilities. Understanding the political, cultural, and legal/legislative realities of doing business in other parts of the world will give any leader - HR or otherwise - an advantage in creating lasting organizational impact and improved business results. The question is: “How can I learn and adopt a global mindset?”

Most HR professionals get focused on their local day-to-day issues and run out of time, energy, and inspiration to step up to building a global knowledge base. Understandable. Some employers will create opportunities for travel and engagement in other parts of the world, but often these experiences are saved for high potential or more senior leaders. So, how does one go about creating opportunities to learn about and experience other cultural and business environments? Here are a few DIY examples of strategies to own the development of your own global mindset. The good news is that as you remain steady in your desire and actions to become more globally proficient, your employer is likely to take notice - and take action on your behalf!

Use online resources to create relationships

Online communities are waiting for you to join! Professional associations, vendor user groups, industry publications - all have global communities of practice that you can join for free and that will support you in beginning to create professional relationships. These communities are pure gold in helping you connect with peers all over the world. And, of course, the usual suspects - Facebook and Linkedin - can jump start your networking. Starting the conversation is the hardest part of the process, but once established, these conversations can lead to the expansion of your industry knowledge, your competitive differentiators, and ultimately, your professional development. All without leaving your home office!

Invest in an international conference

No matter how diligent you are in creating global relationships via social media, you will still need to travel and meet peers face-to-face. Nothing compares to immersing yourself in another culture on the ground. Traveling to another country once a year, or every other year, to attend a conference of like-minded professionals can be the most efficient way to create this global mindset. This might seem difficult, however, there are some compelling ways to get this done. If you have to pay for it yourself, there may be advantageous tax implications. Better yet, create the business case and submit it to your boss. You might get full or partial support if you can create a compelling ROI for your business. If you're successful in this approach, add on some days to really soak in the local culture. And don't forget to visit with some of the local contacts you made at the conference. They will be thrilled to take you on a tour of their business and introduce you to other professionals! And don't forget to loop in the new relationships you've made on social media while you're in country.  

Create experiential development activities

A compelling strategy for expanding your global mindset is to invest in on-the-ground learning with a group of peers. There are a number of professional development travel outfitters that gather professional peers for international deep dives. A particularly successful such group is Nanda Journeys, a professional travel outfitter that organizes just these types of global experiences. Professionals with a purpose traveling together to learn about culture and business find these kinds of expeditions extremely meaningful. I've led a number of them (China, India, Japan, Cuba, Hungary/Czech Republic) and can attest to the power of this type of professional development and experiential learning. The journeys I co-led were all about HR in these countries and I travelled with a wide variety of HR professionals. (We have a trip planned to Singapore in November. Find out more here.)


As a case-in-point, one of the attendees on our most recent journey to Eastern Europe was a regional domestic head of talent acquisition for a large global financial services firm. She had long wanted to take on an international assignment, but was not seeing success in that regard. Part of her strategy was to invest her own vacation time and funds to demonstrate her commitment to becoming a viable candidate for an international leadership role. She believed that if she made a tangible (and visible) personal investment in understanding talent acquisition dynamics in other parts of the world her organization might take her career goal more seriously. And sure enough, within a few months of returning home, she was moved into a global role that meets her personal and professional goals very neatly.

Demonstrating your willingness to take on the ownership of your learning and being clear about your professional goals makes a difference. And if you truly want to make more global contributions to the success of your organization, you might have to take matters into your own hands. At worst you'll have a broader skill and knowledge set that will be valuable to an employer (maybe not your current one). At best, you'll position yourself for the next step in a more globally focused career. Either way, you win!

The following post is contributed by Joyce Maroney, Executive Director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos.  It was originally published on Forbes.com.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and make a claim: Not all people are alike, and not all people want the same things at work, including senior leadership positions. Doesn't sound so controversial, right? But what if I replace "people" with "women"? Did you start making some assumptions about what might be different for women at work?

Global research conducted by Grant Thornton in 2016 determined that just 24% of senior management roles were held by women, with 33% of responding organizations having no women in senior leadership at all. With so many decades of progress behind us when it comes to civil rights and women's educational attainment, why do these differences persist? Given the evidencethat more diverse leadership generates better results for organizations, why don't they try harder to move women into management?

I've been thinking about this for a few days, since I read this article by Heidi Kasevich, Ph.D., titled "Gender & Temperament: The One-Two Punch That Can Hold You Back." In it, she says that "although 50 percent of the workforce self-identifies as introverts, 96 percent of leaders and managers self-identify as extroverts. Whether we acknowledge it or not – whether our biases are conscious or implicit – we are living in society that privileges the male extroverted leader: masculine, alpha, gregarious, and bold." Kasevich goes on to discuss how women are less likely to achieve leadership positions because women who exhibit take-charge behaviors may be labelled in negative ways (bossy, demanding, rude) while their male peers demonstrating the same behaviors are more likely to be seen as leadership material. She concludes that organizations need to nurture quiet leaders as well as they do those who fit the prevailing extroverted model.

There is much of her argument that I agree with, but I believe also that the things that can hold us back at work are more nuanced than gender and temperament. I don't disagree that organizations need to cultivate talented female employees for leadership positions. As a woman in the workforce for the last 40 years, I understand the special challenges that women face at work. I firmly believe, however, that the path to leadership begins with the individual –and not with the organization coaxing him or her out of their shell.

There are lots of reasons that people who aspire to leadership don't advance to leadership positions. Some are legitimate: The next step position isn't available in the organization, or the person hasn't acquired sufficient skills yet. Some aren't: Bias, favoritism and other factors certainly hold some people back. Men and women can struggle to position themselves as leaders among their peers for a variety of reasons.  I think there are lots of things that organizations can do to identify, support and develop leadership talent, but I don't think anyone becomes a leader by waiting for somebody else to make that happen.

For those who do want to position themselves to develop as leaders, here are my recommendations:

• Start by getting clear on your goals when it comes to leadership. Talk to people inside and outside of your organization to understand the implications of assuming bigger leadership roles. Does the time and effort required fit into your overall work-life plan?

• Make your aspirations clear to your manager and other stakeholders who might be able to help you progress. Be specific about the work you want to do.

• Do an outstanding job in your current role – and be prepared to demonstrate your ability to take on additional responsibilities. I've seen plenty of people get frustrated by this one, feeling it was unreasonable to assume more responsibility without a title change and/or pay increase. You need to look at this as a pilot period to prove your ability to make a bigger impact.

• Make sure you get credit for your results. I've done plenty of projects where my focus on achieving the best team outcome didn't include promoting my personal contributions. There can be a fine line between confidence and hubris, but you have to navigate that path if you expect to be rewarded for your contributions.

• Know your worth in the market. Join professional organizations that help you understand what other professionals in your role are doing – and how they are compensated. Keep your LinkedIn profile current, and if you are contacted by a recruiter, do a little probing to understand the value of your skills.

• Be prepared to make big changes. Your next step may not be within your current organization. And no matter how much you love your current job, you may have to go elsewhere to acquire new skills and responsibilities.

I'm interested in your recommendations.  What have you done to ensure your career is on a track that works for you?

office-620823_1920 Today's guest post is courtesy of our board member, China Gorman. China is a consultant, speaker, writer, and former CEO of the Great Place to Work® Institute.

If you read any business publication - print or online - you'll know that organization culture has become a critical advantage when competing for talent today. If the CEO and her C-suite commit to organizational values that promote the value of purpose, the building of trust, and the meaning of work, as well as the commitment to create real, personal relationships with colleagues - human-to-human rather than boss-to- subordinate - there is virtually no downside from an organizational performance perspective.

The tremendous productivity gains and culture-enhancing benefits promised by putting technology to use are huge. But using technology to create more human relationships and cultures at work is irony at its finest. Is there really an app for that?

Here's where we need to focus: if we allow technology, Big Data, and predictive analytics to make it harder - rather than easier - for us to relate to each other on a more human level, we'll have abdicated our responsibilities as leaders and missed an epic opportunity to improve our business outcomes.

If we miss this opportunity, it will most likely be because we neglected to set our first line supervisors and middle managers up for success. We're notoriously ineffective at equipping these folks to be good relationship builders, behavioral leaders, and approachable partners with the human business of our businesses. We focus, instead on “hard” skills development, if we invest in their development at all.

As we maximize the benefits of technology, Big Data, and people analytics, we also need to invest in developmental opportunities for all of our managers - with a special emphasis on middle managers and first line supervisors. If these critical leaders aren't focused on creating more personal relationships with their employees - including being equipped with skills, abilities, and attitudes to relate on a human level - if they aren't approachable, if they aren't trustworthy, if they aren't human, you'll get what you've always gotten. My belief, though, is that what you've always gotten won't be enough in 2017, 2018 or beyond. Bringing humanity into your culture through your first line supervisors and middle managers is a critical next step. But to do that will require focus and investment. Perhaps one of the most important investments in your 2017 plan.

What's your organization doing to enable your first line supervisors and middle managers to become more effective leaders?  Are they able to coach and develop your employees?  Do they make the time to do so?

Today's post is part 2 of a 3 part series on the career myths that can hold you back professionally. Part 2 focuses on managing yourself at work.

Myths About Managing Yourself at Work

You need to be outgoing and liked by everyone to succeed.

You need a mentor to be successful. 

Networking is most useful when you're looking for a job.

  1. Familiarize yourself with professional associations - national and local  - where people in your field get together.
  2. Talk to your manager about paying for your attendance at these professional conferences as part of your development plan.  If you can't attend in person, you may still be able to access conference presentations in online forums connected to the event.
  3. Make sure you're a member of online communities that are active in your profession.  This can be a great way to “meet” people.  I've made some great connections by complimenting people on their content in forums then connecting with them by phone or in person later.
  4. SOCIAL MEDIA! You have LinkedIn - you can find your way to just about anybody you'd like to meet.  Twitter is another way to connect with people.  Share interesting information on your feed.  Compliment others on theirs.
  5. Actively look for ways to contribute back to your network - send people information you think will be useful to them, make introductions for them.

You need to focus on becoming the best functional expert possible.  Success means knowing all the answers.

Taking risks can be bad for your career.

Today I've had the opportunity to participate in the Emerging Leaders Event of the Association of YMCA Professionals (AYP). This event is a gathering of young Y professionals who've been identified by their leadership as rising stars, and this event is an investment in their development. You can see a few of the participants enjoying themselves below.

I was invited to speak at this event, and asked to focus on career management strategies. I put together a talk titled The Top Ten Career Myths and How They Hold You Back. Today's post is part 1 of that talk, myths about getting started in your career. I'll post parts 2 & 3 over the next couple of days.

Getting Started in Your Career

Your twenties “don't count”.  You can get the job you really want later, just take what's available now.  You just need to try a lot of different options to figure out what you want to do when you grow up anyway.

The best way to find a job is to search online job postings. 

It is impossible to advance in a large organization.

 

 

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As this is the time of year that many people start making their New Year's resolutions - personal and professional - I thought I'd share some of the best career management tips I know. Some of these I learned from others and some I learned the hard way. In any case, here goes:

    1. Do whatever Irene tells you to do and don't embarrass me. whale-watch.jpgThis one comes courtesy of my father. My first job was doing the payroll, manually, at his codfish processing plant in Witless Bay, Newfoundland. (Photo is my family in the harbor in front of that plant last summer). Irene was the long time office manager who knew how to make things happen. Getting to know the Irenes everywhere I've worked since has saved me time and embarrassment.
    2. Speak up. This one applies when you have a good idea and/or when you know that something just isn't right. Organizations rise and fall on the quality and openness of communications between people.
    3. Assertions absent data are just your opinion. This is a corollary to #2. If you want to promote your idea, you need to be able to substantiate its merit with objective data.
    4. The workplace is different for women. Even as organizations have welcomed women into the workforce in the last 30 years, the realities of childbearing and rearing can still throw them for a loop when it comes to contemplating alternative career paths and flexible work options. The world has come a long way since 1985 - when my then employer asked me to sign a letter committing that I wouldn't get pregnant. See this article in yesterday's New York Times regarding what organizations are doing to provide more flexibility for workers.
    5. The company's money is the company's money. In the interest of encouraging employees to be frugal, companies often exhort them to "treat the company's money like it's your own". This seems to confuse some people - whose behavior can lead you to believe that they must live like sultans from Dubai on their own time. Don't waste company resources and don't play games with your expenses. If you need a history lesson on this one, think Enron.
    6. There is power in silence. This is a thesis topic in its own right. Relationships and careers get derailed when things are said in anger, ignorance, or just because the speaker decided to keep talking while s/he shouldn't have. Keeping your mouth shut at the right times gives you time to think.
    7. Email is both friend and foe. I'm old enough to remember the workplace pre-email. It's a fantastic tool for conveying information and agreements quickly to lots of people. The dark side of this ease of use is how much workplace productivity is sacrificed to individuals coping with volumes of email that get in the way of "real work". It's a rotten tool for negotiating agreements. And it makes it way too easy to communicate something in haste that you'll regret later. In 2008, make a promise to yourself to pick up the phone or walk down the hall more frequently.
    8. Selling is the most important skill of all. The years I spent as a sales rep were among the most valuable of my career. Planning and persuasion are key to success in sales - and in business in general. I don't care what your functional expertise is. If you can't persuade others to take action, your own success will be limited.
    9. Management has its ups and downs. This one could also be called "be careful what you wish for". It's great to manage a team of capable, creative and motivated people (as I do now). However, as your responsibilities, compensation, and access to information increase, so does your risk. Your mistakes become more costly and visible and the time you need to invest in doing a good job increases. You have to make tough decisions that can lead to unemployment for people you care about. Not everyone can or should be a manager. Organizations need to continue to find ways to retain highly talented individual performers whose goals don't (or shouldn't) include people management.
    10. Keep your job in perspective. This one isn't always easy, but is probably the most important of all. Jobs have their ups and downs. Organizations do, too. Be respectful of other people, work hard while you're at work, don't be defensive in the face of obstacles, and when you go home, shut the door on the workplace. Much is written about how organizations can help promote work life balance. Ultimately, though, only you can define and protect the work-life boundaries that work for you. If you can't honor that balance in your current job situation, then it's up to you to find one that will work for you.

That's it for my top ten career advice tips. What would you add to the list?

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