It's easy to become distracted at work as the end of the year approaches. With the holidays drawing near, many people start thinking about their upcoming time off and making plans with family and friends. But it's important to not let this joyous time of year get you off track at work and put you into a holiday slump.
A sluggish finish to the year could easily spoil what was mostly a good year on the job. The good news? It's possible to enjoy this time of year and continue to crush it at work!
Here's how...
Get A Jump On Next Year's Goals
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Chances are you have already started outlining goals for the year ahead. So, why not start on them immediately? It's even likely that some of your goals from the previous year may carry over into the new year.
You don't have to wait until the clock strikes midnight to begin working toward your goals for the year ahead.
Write down all your goals, professional and personal, and determine a good starting point. Working from ahead not only gives you a good sense of pride, but when the time does come to take some time off for the holidays, you'll be able to enjoy it more.
Take Some Time To Bond With Co-Workers
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While you don't want the holidays to interfere and distract you from your work responsibilities, they do provide a great opportunity to bond with your co-workers. Whether it's through a company gift exchange, or some form of holiday party (even if it's virtual), take some time to check in with your co-workers, and recognize them for all they do to help the company, and make your job easier.
Having a cordial relationship with your co-workers is something that takes constant work, so it's extremely important to show appreciation when you can. The workforce doesn't have to be best friends, but it's good for overall morale, and sometimes job performance, that everyone gets along and respects their colleagues.
Take Stock Of Where You Are In Your Career
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This is an opportunity to do an honest assessment of yourself and where you are in your career. By doing this assessment, you can chart out and adjust your long-term career plan. This is a much larger task than just setting goals for the year. But doing this at the end of the year is beneficial, as you have another year's worth of information to help guide your thought process.
If things aren't going well, you'll want to come up with potential solutions, and if one of those solutions is a career change, it's best to begin planning immediately.
While starting the new year with career uncertainty isn't ideal, approaching this challenge with a plan in place will give you confidence and focus for the year ahead.
As long as you find ways to remain focused and have something to work toward, it's very possible to avoid a holiday slump and enjoy the end of the year. It's all about balance!
Need more help with your career as the year comes to a close?
Are you terrified of screwing up a job interview? Does the thought of writing a cover letter horrify you? Are you scared to network with others? What do you even say, anyway? If you're struggling to overcome your job search fears, this live event is for you.
We get it. Looking for work can be scary, especially if you’ve been at it for a long time and haven’t gotten any results.
Understanding which fears are getting in the way and how to overcome them will make all the difference. Sometimes you might not be aware of which obstacle is getting in the way of your goals. If you want to overcome these fears once and for all, we invite you to join us!
In this training, you’ll learn how to:
Utilize strategies for coping with your job search fears
Be confident in your job search—from writing your resume to networking
Face your fears and move forward
Join our CEO, J.T. O'Donnell, and Director of Training Development & Coaching, Christina Burgio, for this live event on Wednesday, October 5th at 12 pm ET.
CAN'T ATTEND LIVE? That's okay. You'll have access to the recording and the workbook after the session!
First of all, it's never too late to get started on LinkedIn. Second of all, there are only four things you need to set up your profile in under 10 minutes.
Here's what those four things are...
4 Things You Need To Set Up Your LinkedIn Profile In Under 10 Minutes
Grab your smartphone and some bright lighting and take a picture of you from the shoulders up with a smile on your face. You want to look professional, yet approachable.
2. Optimized Headline
Your headline is the most important real estate on your LinkedIn profile. Linkedin works like a search algorithm: people look for keywords about your skill sets, and if those are in your headline, you show up at the top of the results. So, pick five or six skill sets you use on the job and put them in your headline.
3. "About" Section
In your "About" section, talk about how many years you've been doing what you're doing (approximately three sentences). Then, write one or two more sentences that roll up your experience and quantify what you've accomplished.
4. Work History
You should only list 15 years of work history (or less if you're still a young professional). Add one or two bullet points for each of the jobs explaining what you got done while working there. Recruiters just want the facts without having to skim through too much text.
Need more help setting up your LinkedIn profile?
I teach a FREE Resume & LinkedIn Bootcamp. In this hour-long course, you'll learn how to optimize your resume and LinkedIn profile so you stand out to recruiters.
But the most important thing you need to know is do not wait. Linkedin is booming right now and companies are looking for talent on it. It's never been easier to get noticed on LinkedIn. So, go set up your profile today!
In a perfect world, it would always be easy to deal with stakeholders, co-workers, bosses, and other peers. The truth is, sometimes we have to deal with difficult people in our personal and professional lives. How we deal with people, difficult or not, will be a factor in how far we go in our careers. So, how can we successfully deal with difficult stakeholders and peers without hurting our professional reputations?
We recently asked our leading executives how they deal with difficult stakeholders and peers at work.
Here are their responses...
Ana Smith, Talent Architect & Global Learning Strategist
Managing stakeholders is one of any project manager's most complex and important responsibilities. The success of any given project or initiative can frequently depend upon stakeholder collaboration and satisfaction, which is why it's essential to give careful attention to their needs.
However, managing difficult stakeholders and peers can be, and therefore become, quite challenging, so it's important to anticipate and manage them effectively. They might not be open and forthcoming in their communications, or they may only offer negative feedback. Some stakeholders may be frustrated at the progress of the project or may not seem to be very engaged in the work. These are some basic areas that you need to focus on in successful stakeholder management: identifying stakeholders (internal and external), understanding stakeholder needs, meeting their needs, underpromising and overdelivering, listening to stakeholder concerns, frequently communicating, amongst others. If not done properly, they can result in spectacular project failures.
There is an "Iron Triangle" on which experienced project managers focus on. This consists of 1) quality/scope, 2) budget, and 3) time. If stakeholders or sponsors want more in the deliverable (i.e., more features) then something has to give. The project will take longer, or it will cost more, or it will be a little of both. If they want to lower costs, they probably cannot do it without decreasing scope or increasing timelines. Stakeholders will need to understand that, and the project manager needs to be consistent on this point.
A poor appreciation of stakeholder management can often lead to catastrophic decision-making which ultimately leads to more cost, longer timelines, and diluted benefits.
Ana Smith helps people & organizations achieve their full talent potential by developing and co-creating people strategies and customized solutions, and turning them into impactful outcomes and collaborative relationships, using coaching as the "red thread."
Andrea Markowski, Marketing Executive
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When I think of difficult people, my college job years ago as a part-time credit card bill collector comes up. People were often on their worst behavior when I called.
Thankfully, we were trained to handle these situations. In essence, you must listen to ALL objections before you can ask someone to agree to a request. It was a valuable lesson about human nature, listening, and empathy.
What does this look like, and how can you use this method?
Step one: Be patient and listen while someone might vent, complain, or express the issues preventing them from doing something.
Step two: Acknowledge what they’ve said and the feelings expressed.
Step three: Repeat steps one and two until there is no more air to clear. Do not move on until the upset person has had their complete say.
Step four: Transition to what you need and “what’s in it for me” (them)—a WIIFM—if they comply.
Also, never accept insults or rude language. In the bill-collecting world, we had permission to hang up if things got out of hand. In your real life, you have permission to leave the situation until cooler heads prevail.
Andrea Markowski is a marketing director with specializations in strategy development, digital tactics, design thinking, and creative direction. She has superpowers in presentations and public speaking.
Lynn Holland, VP Sales & Business Development
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Take a job, win a client, use a dating app, and you’re amongst people with hurts, hang-ups, and emotions like fear, anger, and insecurity near the surface. Add modern pressures and poof! Disagreement, bias, and attitude. An inevitable evil, here are some tools for influence and goodwill:
Peers
1. Seek to understand their POV and why (internal/external influences)
2. Suggest reaching the best company/collective outcome vs. personal preferences
3. Consider if ideas #1 and #2 can be combined for an even better solution (ideal outcome)
4. If #3 fails, translate #1 and #2 into their respective cost/benefit for the company/collective
Stakeholders
1. Build individual profiles - job responsibilities, fears, and biases that internally motivate rejecting or buying into ideas or initiatives
2. Correlate ideas or initiatives to serving their inner personal interests without risk
3. Partner and collaborate with an internal champion motivated to build support for ideas or initiatives that improve the workplace
Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience taking operational, IoT & retail technologies, products, & consumer engagement to market with a focus in petroleum & convenience retail.
Michael Willis, Sports Business Operations Executive
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How to deal with difficult stakeholders and peers:
1. The first step is to identify the stakeholder. While everyone on the team has value, I would identify the threat to the team. The overall mission and objectives of the team must be met. If there is a weak link, executives and team leaders need this information.
2. Like any other threat the team encounters, the difficult stakeholder’s activities must be monitored.
3. Meet them one-on-one to discuss the facts that have been gathered. Don’t just rely on second-hand information. Keep the conversation free-flowing. Let the difficult stakeholder do all the talking.
4. Determine the motivation behind the recent behavior.
5. Remind the difficult stakeholder of their place on the team and, most importantly, the mission and goals the group must meet.
6. Determine their motivation. Try to find out what triggered the behavior. Offer remedies or solutions.
7. Create a success story to create new energy and purpose. Tell the stakeholder how the team is valued and viewed by the company.
8. Develop a perpetual communication stream that flows in every direction. As executives, it’s our job to fix problems. But I feel it’s even more important to get ahead of issues before they become problems.
Michael Willis has 18+ years of experience working with accounting & sports organizations and has managed P&Ls of $10M - $125M+ with budgets of $3M-$50M+. He worked for the NFL for 22 1/2 years, mainly with the game officials working on the financial/accounting side of the business.
Mark Taylor, Product & Operations Executive
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“Dancing Monkey (DM): the length of time between giving someone work to do and your brain wondering why you haven’t seen any product yet.”
If a stakeholder’s DM works on a more frequent cycle than yours, they might come across as “difficult.”
To work out a stakeholder’s DM and stay one step ahead, use informal, face-to-face communication.
E.g.: “Accidentally” walk past their office the day after you were given the work.
YOU: “Hi, not stopping, know you’re busy...”
THEM: “How’s it going?”
YOU: "All good. By the way, I’m cracking on with that work from yesterday."
THEM: "Great. Could we review what you've done so far now/later/tomorrow/next week?"
(Here’s where you find out whether you’ll be burning the midnight oil—or if you have a few days’ grace.)
Do this a few times and you’ll soon become calibrated with a stakeholder’s DM, a means of managing their “difficult” tendencies better.
Mark Taylor has 20+ years of risk, technology, and product management experience working in global and regional financial services firms in the UK and the U.S. He's managed teams of 40+, successfully addressed 100+ regulatory issues, and has saved companies $15M+.
Lisa Perry, Global Marketing Executive
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At this point in my career, I am an expert in dealing with difficult stakeholders and peers regarding how often this has happened to me in a work situation. That said, it’s never easy and takes patience, empathy, communication, collaboration, and your eye on the end goal to ensure you succeed. Here are a few tips I’ve learned that might help you with this situation:
Patience: The key here is to keep your cool as temperatures rise. Take the emotion out of the equation. If that means you need to step away, do it. It’s essential to be objective, calm, and professional.
Empathy: Remember the saying, “Seek first to understand, then to be understood,” from Steven Covey’s book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People? People want to be heard. Let them talk, and have them get their frustrations out. Even if you disagree, be quiet. It will be to your advantage. It’s important to understand where their negativity is coming from so you can address it. You will have time to speak. Give them the first round.
Communication Is Key: It’s essential to tailor your communication to their style when dealing with difficult stakeholders and peers. Ask them what works for them. I’ve also found that asking these two questions in emails helps clarify any miscommunication: does this match what you need, and did I miss anything?
Collaborate: Above all, you need to collaborate and show that you have their best interest at heart and you want to work with them and figure out the best path forward.
If you stay focused on the end goal and try not to get caught up in the emotional turmoil of dealing with difficult individuals, you might be surprised at how effective this approach can be.
Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.
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