The Secret Ingredient For YOUR Career Success
POSTED BY MANOJ VASUDEVAN · WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2019
During a recent interview, I was asked
- What decides whether or not a person survives and thrives in their profession?
- How does one person get selected over another for better opportunities?
No matter how much we deny it or ignore it, there are missing links between your efforts and rewards.
- Some face rising tides of negative perceptions despite continued positive behaviors.
- Some others have to deal with unrealistic expectations from bosses, difficult colleagues or lack of clarity, adequate power or respect.
The challenge is that hard work is never enough to survive and thrive in the corporate/professional world – particularly during uncertain times or difficult projects
.
How do you then navigate the maze in the professional world to survive and thrive?
How do you create positive perceptions about you, build your personal brand and stand out in the crowd?
The not so secret ingredient is to develop the proficiency called “Influence without authority“. When I learned it, I was so fascinated by its ease, efficacy, and impact. I was like “Why didn’t I learn this earlier?” Gladly, now I get to teach this to others.
Here are some questions for your own self-evaluation
- How do you get people on your side even though they don’t report to you?
- How do you build alliances to get support for your perspectives and your initiatives especially during high-stakes meetings?
- How do you get air cover when you are fighting in the trenches and facing the bullets?
- How do you manage upwards and sidewards with bosses, colleagues and influential stakeholders?
The good news is – this is a learnable skill. If you are committed to investing time to learn this – you can survive in almost any difficult situation, challenging projects and deal with superiors and people who are powerful than you.
To build your proficiency to influence without authority, you need to first have a solid mastery of the 5 core skills (You probably heard me mention this in an article you read recently) You will realize this is not rocket science when you learn the step by step systematic process that gives you consistent results. It works even for people without special talents or prior experience!
People who work to master the 5 core skills are able to shape perceptions, build strategic networks, contain unrealistic expectations and consistently receive recognition for the work they do. (As you probably heard, it is not always what you do, it is a lot about what people think you did!).
As you can see, the 5 core skills form the foundation on which the future of your career stands. The stronger the foundation, the longer you will stand.
If you missed it, here are the 5 core skills again. You need to master these to stay relevant
- How to Connect instantly with people you meet
- How to Communicate effectively by expressing your thoughts, clearly, confidently and convincingly.
- How to Network widely without golfing, drinking or bragging (saving lots of time and effort)
- How to Lead others by being a person others will choose to follow (and getting others to work on your goals, freeing up your time to dream bigger or relax more!)
- How to influence so that you can get others to accept your ideas, opinions, products/services (following a systematic process that helps you achieve more in less time)
The direct impact of learning these five skills in a structured manner is to master how to influence without authority
People often ask me “Manoj, tell me, how can I master these 5 core skills?” The answer is ETP – the Executive Transformation Program and Next Level Leadership Readiness Program, a coaching and mentoring program where you get the opportunity to learn directly from me and optional 1-on-1 assistance to bullet-proof your career by incorporating next-level leadership readiness strategies in your profession.
