Sanjay’s colleague got a second promotion in six months and Sanjay was fuming. Everyone knows that it was due to Sanjay’s efforts and ideas that the project was a success. But still it was the ‘show off colleague’ who stole the show. Even so, Sanjay found himself unable to voice his displeasure and had to smile when the announcement was made. The pressure and the dissatisfaction have taken a toll on his health and he finds himself depressed and sick more often.
Like Sanjay’s lack of assertiveness, if procrastination, bad interpersonal skills and other problems plague you at work, then this is the time you recognized the habits that are keeping you down at work and change these to get your due.
Lack of Assertiveness
This is the reason why so many deserving employees have to wait longer to get their due. In today’s scenario where competition and self marketing are gaining prominence, the silent, hard worker might be noticed much later than the colleagues who are more effective communicators.
Some tips for you
- Start Small: It is difficult at start to just go ahead and take charge. Take small steps, when you find your opinions ignored by a colleague, interrupt and repeat and justify your point. If another colleague is asking you to do his project, say no if you feel so, as workplace is not the place where you should try to please everyone.
- Learn to speak up: If you really care about your work, you have to speak up. You have to make sure that you grab the opportunity and the stage when the need arises. If you are held back by fear of presentation, then practice hard at home in front of the mirror before you go for it.
Procrastination
The presentation was to be done since the whole month. It was not really complicated but you never liked to research and were bad at presentation. Now, a day before you are supposed to present- you are awake the whole night scrambling to finish it. The result, you are hardly awake and the presentation looks shabbily done.
Some tips for you
- Pledge to do it now: The first response that you will have on being given any work is ‘I will do it later’ or even better ‘I will do it tomorrow’. That tomorrow never arrives. So pledge that any new work will start “right now”. If you have too much work right now at least make a plan to start work on it as soon as possible. Once you do this you will find that deadlines make no difference to you.
Lack of Presentation skills
For some, it is not the work but the packaging that challenges them. No matter how good is the content, lack of good presentation gives a bad impression.
Some tips for you:
- Learn Presentation skills: It is a very obvious suggestion but one that needs to be implemented now. There can be no excuses like ‘I am just not good at the packaging’ or ‘I am a bad presenter”. Earlier you learn these skills, the better. Explore presentation softwares like PowerPoint, download slides, watch effective presentation skills videos and take help of your friends who are good at that. Give mock presentations to your friends to start off and take their feedback. If your content is great and presentation skills good, there will be no stopping you.
Not working well in Groups
Some of us really do exceptionally well in individual assignments but as soon as we are given group or team assignments, the productivity drops. In a workplace, you not only need to work well individually but also need to be a good team player.
Some tips for you:
- Work on interpersonal skills: You have to open up with others. No need to be very sweet and caring but at least make sure you are not seen as cold and impersonal. If you have problems sharing personal information at least talk about things that are general.
- Work with others: When you volunteer to help someone or are seen as appreciative, others will accept you easily and will like to work with you. Even if you are not sharing but are listening and responding to every opinion, you are more likely to become a part of the team.
Attitude Problem
Others always complain that you have an attitude. But you could never understand what exactly they were talking about. But wait, this attitude is not only a block when communicating with juniors but even your seniors are not happy about this trait.
Some tips for you:
- Change the manner: Maybe the way you communicate is the problem. When you want to tell your colleague that there are flaws in the data, go to him personally and point those without criticizing him. Even in a meeting, don’t be too eager to point out why the plan wouldn’t work, doing this will alienate you with others.
- Be open to Feedback: When you give your comments on others work you should be equally forthcoming in taking their opinions too. Even when the feedback isn’t that good, you have to accept it and learn from it.
Being Disorganized
Many of us are good workers but often have the shabbiest desks, cluttered inbox, unstructured folders. This habit really pulls us down when we fail to locate the most essential details when the time comes. The entire good work is then overlooked and the small mistake is pointed out.
Tips for you:
- Be up to date: Use a dairy or a planner to chalk out the day, what is expected and what time you allot to each of the tasks.
- Clear your mail box: Assign a time in a week when you look at your mail box and delete all the unimportant mails and reply to the ones you didn’t.
- Check list: Whenever you go out for a meeting or a conference, check list the documents that are required, check if you have everything you require.
With these habits and traits recognized and worked on, you bet that it is not your colleague but you who will get the next promotion.
