When asked about the drivers for his career success, John highlights these three key elements:

1. Find an organization that aligns with your values

John’s values and those of HSBC aligned perfectly and, that, according to John, fueled his career success. Whether it was his conservative stance toward risk or the importance of doing something bigger than oneself, John felt this cultural fit allowed him to focus fully on his work. He advises anyone joining a new organization to closely observe the organization’s behaviors to make sure it matches the values it states and that those values match your own. Most organizations will have great-sounding values but do their senior leaders stay consistent with those values during difficult times? Do they defend people as they promise? Will they turn away business for the right reasons?

2. Run towards problems

When reflecting on his early career, John recognized his interest in tackling the bank’s most challenging issues when others tended to shy away from them. He noted that his interest and aptitude in dealing with difficult problems helped him attract mentors who took him under their wings. When asked how best to land a mentor, John recommends that you keep your focus on your own performance. Strong performance in itself will catch the right people’s attention. Leaders invest in you when they see your potential and drive to succeed. Of course, the personal chemistry between you and them counts too! Finally, if your organization has a formal mentoring program in place, John recommends actively taking advantage of it.

3. Capitalize on luck

John, the humble leader that he is, acknowledges the role of luck in his career. He reached the top because he was in the right place at the right time on several occasions. At the same time, his work ethic allowed him to showcase his skills when the right opportunities arose. When asked about navigating corporate politics, John highlights the importance of recognizing that we are all part of a politicized situation (“You aren’t stuck in traffic. You are traffic.”). He recommends analyzing how incentives work in your system especially if you feel like the system is political in a way that is not helpful. Once you understand the incentives, it may become clear why people are doing what they are doing.

In addition to the drivers for his career success, John also discussed the leadership lessons he learned at the helm of HSBC.

On Leading a New Team

For any new leadership role, John suggests that you start with listening. Let the people in your new group know that you want to hear what they have to say and create an environment where they can be candid with you. These conversations will help you best diagnose the situation as you formulate your plan forward. Also, if you’re feeling nervous about your new role, keep in mind that the people who report to you are likely feeling even more anxiety. Show empathy for your people, especially during this transition period.

On Managing a Crisis

Despite the work and stress that comes with handling a crisis, John recalls one of the most significant lifts in his career came after he successfully navigated his organization through a crisis. He believes a crisis accelerates your growth as a leader because you must make more decisions in a shorter amount of time. When asked how he deals with a crisis, John suggests viewing it as a series of waves. “You take the hit from the first wave, get your head back above water, and brace for the second wave.” As a leader, John emphasizes the importance of psychologically preparing your team to focus on the incoming waves rather than spend too much time trying to get back to the way things were. To stay resilient during tough times, John relied on trusted individuals in his professional and personal networks to share what he was going through. Lastly, as a leader, no matter how difficult the situation, you should always have a view on what to do.

On Working for “Bad” Leaders

If you’re working for a leader you don’t respect, John advises that you not worry too much about it. He emphasizes, “Good leaders teach you how to be, and bad leaders can teach you how not to be. As you build your own leadership skills understanding this can help you learn from any boss – whether you respect them or not.”

When asked about his selection criteria for his executive team, John looks for the following qualities:

• Integrity – will they make the right decision when no one is looking?
• Willingness to learn – do they keep striving to be better every day?
• Impact on others – when the person enters a room, is the room energized or deflated? How do they treat people when under pressure?

John adds that he’s personally drawn to people who are both brilliant and humble. Two red flags: First, when a person’s brilliance impacts others negatively. Second, overly selfish behavior. Once someone shows they are no longer willing to serve something bigger than themselves, John will likely start planning for a change.

On Understanding Your Value

John emphasized that most people can readily answer how much money they’ve made that fiscal quarter. Yet, few people can answer how that money was made. John advises leaders to be curious and thoughtful about understanding how they and their enterprise make their money. He recommends that you know it well enough to explain it clearly to a ten-year-old. By recognizing the ways you truly add value to your organization, you will know where you stand and come up with ways to become more valuable.

John wraps up the fireside chat with his leadership philosophy,

“A leader’s most profound responsibility is to create the best possible environment for the people they are leading so they can fulfill their potential and do the work that they need to do.”

For any Wharton Alums who would like access to the full recording of this fireside chat, send a message here.

The post Career and Leadership Lessons from John Flint, former Group CEO of HSBC appeared first on Robert Chen.

1. It’s as easy to do something big as it is to do something small, so reach for a fantasy worthy of your pursuit, with rewards commensurate to your effort.

• What are you working towards right now in your career? in life? If you achieve what you wanted, what rewards would come your way?
• How might you increase the size and scope of the goal you’re pursuing?

2. The best executives are made, not born. They never stop learning. Study the people and organizations in your life that have had enormous success. They offer a free course from the real world to help you improve.

• Which successful person are you learning from right now? Who has achieved the success you want to achieve?
• How can you continue to find high-quality people or resources to further your learning?

3. Write or call the people you admire, and ask for advice or a meeting. You never know who will be willing to meet with you. You may end up learning something important or form a connection you can leverage for the rest of your life. Meeting people early in life creates an unusual bond.

• Who can you reach out to today for advice or to connect?
• How will you make connecting with others a regular practice?  

4. There is nothing more interesting to people than their own problems. Think about what others are dealing with, and try to come up with ideas to help them. Almost anyone, however senior or important, is receptive to good ideas provided you are thoughtful.

• Think about the key people in your professional and personal networks. What problems are they grappling with right now? How might you be able to help them?
• Can you reach out to one of these people today to offer your ideas? 

5. Every business is a closed, integrated system with a set of distinct but interrelated parts. Great managers understand how each part works on its own and in relation to all the others.

• Do you understand every part of your business and how each part connects with each other? (Knowing your business has been advice echoed by Andrew Gorsky, Ken Chenault, and Mary Barra). 

6. Information is the most important asset in business. The more you know, the more perspectives you have, and the more likely you are to spot patterns and anomalies before your competition. So always be open to new inputs, whether they are people, experiences, or knowledge.

• What new experiences will you participate in to broaden your information base? List 3 specific new inputs for this month, this quarter, and this year.

7. When you’re young, only take a job that provides you with a steep learning curve and strong training. First jobs are foundational. Don’t take a job just because it seems prestigious.

• What new things are you learning from your job right now?
• If you’re not learning anything new, how can you adjust your role to get back to learning?

8. When presenting yourself, remember that impressions matter. The whole picture has to be right. Others will be watching for all sorts of clues and cues that tell who you are. Be on time. Be authentic. Be prepared

• What are you doing to manage the impressions people have of you? What clues and cues are you giving off to people? If you’re not sure how to manage this, this article on personal branding might help.

9. No one person, however smart, can solve every problem. But an army of smart people talking openly with one another will.

• Who are the smart people you talk to on a regular basis? If you can’t list anyone, what will you do to find these people? 

10. People in a tough spot often focus on their own problems, when the answer usually lies in fixing someone else’s.

• Whose problem can you help fix right now based on your skill set and resources?
• Can you take action today to fix someone else problem?

11. Believe in something greater than yourself and your personal needs. It can be your company, your country, or a duty for service. Any challenge you tackle that is inspired by your beliefs and core values will be worth it, regardless of whether you succeed or fail.

• What are your beliefs and core values? (This pdf and this article might help if you’re not sure.)
• What is the greater cause you’re striving for?

12. Never deviate from your sense of right and wrong. Your integrity must be unquestionable. It is easy to do what’s right when you don’t have to write a check or suffer any consequences. It’s harder when you have to give something up. Always do what you say you will, and never mislead anyone for your own advantage.

• Over the last 3 months, what situations have tested your integrity? What did you end up doing in those situations?
• What investments or sacrifices have you made over the last 12 months because it was the right thing to do?

13. Be bold. Successful entrepreneurs, managers, and individuals have the confidence and courage to act when the moment seems right. They accept risk when others are cautious and take action when everyone else is frozen, but they do so smartly. This trait is the mark of a leader.

• What is the last bold thing you did in the past 6 months? 
• What are you doing now to help you take quick action when the moment is right?

14. Never get complacent. Nothing is forever. Whether it is an individual or a business, your competition will defeat you if you are not constantly seeking ways to reinvent and improve yourself. Organizations, especially, are more fragile than you think.

• What are the specific things you’re doing right now to reinvent and improve yourself and your organization? 
• What are the inputs that have you decide what to improve/reinvent?

15. Sales rarely get made on the first pitch. Just because you believe in something doesn’t mean everyone else will. You need to be able to sell your vision with conviction over and over again. Most people don’t like change, so you need to be able to convince them why they should accept it. Don’t be afraid to ask for what you want.

• What vision would you like to sell to people?
• When was the last time you sold this vision or ask people for what you want? How are you selling that vision right now?
• Who is one person you can pitch this week?

16. If you see a huge, transformative opportunity, don’t worry that no one else is pursuing it. You might be seeing something others don’t. The harder the problem is, the more limited the competition, and the greater the reward for whomever can solve it.

• What transformative opportunity do you see?
• What is one thing you can do now to capitalize on that opportunity?

17. Success comes down to rare moments of opportunity. Be open, alert, and ready to seize them. Gather the right people and resources; then commit. If you’re not prepared to apply that kind of effort, either the opportunity isn’t as compelling as you think or you are not the right person to pursue it.

• Are you connected to the right people and resources? How can you secure enough “dry powder” to take advantage of the opportunities when they come?

18. Time wounds all deals, sometimes even fatally. Often the longer you wait, the more surprises await you. In tough negotiations especially, keep everyone at the table long enough to reach an agreement.

• If you’re in an active deal or negotiation right now, what can you do to close the deal so both parties are taken care of?
• What might you be doing that needlessly jeopardizes the deal? 

19. Don’t lose money!!! Objectively assess the risks of every opportunity.

• Do you have a good process to objectively assess risk? 

20. Make decisions when you are ready, not under pressure. Others will always push you to make a decision for their own purposes, internal politics, or some other external need. But you can almost always say, “I think I need a little more time to think about this. I’ll get back to you.” This tactic is very effective at defusing even the most difficult and uncomfortable situations.

• What decisions do you have to make right now? 
• Which ones can you make faster and which ones should you slow down?
• What is your decision-making process? (see rule #22)

21. Worrying is an active, liberating activity. If channeled appropriately, it allows you to articulate the downside in any situation and drives you to take action to avoid it.

• What might be worth worrying about? 
• Are you worrying in a productive way?

22. Failure is the best teacher in an organization. Talk about failures openly and objectively. Analyze what went wrong. You will learn new rules for decision making and organizational behavior. If evaluated well, failures have the potential to change the course of any organization and make it more successful in the future.

• What was your last failure? What did you learn? (Growth mindset book summary might be helpful)
• How recent was your last failure?

23. Hire 10s whenever you can. They are proactive about sensing problems, designing solutions, and taking a business in new directions. They also attract and hire other 10s. You can always build something around a 10.

• How many 10s are you working with right now? 
• Who are the 10s in your network? 
• Where can you find 10s in you need to recruit them?

24. Be there for the people you know to be good, even when everyone else is walking away. Anyone can end up in a tough situation. A random act of kindness in someone’s time of need can change the course of a life and create an unexpected friendship or loyalty.

• Who can you be kind to right now?

25. Everyone has dreams. Do what you can to help others achieve theirs.

• What are the dreams of the people close to you? Can you do one thing to move them forward in those dreams? 

Take some time and answer the questions for each of these rules. Then take action aligned with your responses. One action I’ll take to support you in your dreams is to offer you the e-book version of my Dreams to Reality Fieldbook free. Just email me and we’ll send a copy over to you. 

The post 25 Rules for Work and Life from Stephen Schwarzman, CEO of Blackstone appeared first on Robert Chen.

Indra mentioned that as a minority (woman and Indian) employee, her work is often discounted. She was able to get to parity by showcasing her competence and being more prepared than anyone else. This need to perform above and beyond just to be considered was echoed by Sol Trujillo, former CEO of Telstra, US West, and Orange.

In addition to being competent, Dr. Nooyi offers the following career advice:

“Invest in communication skills”

As she reflects on the success factors for her career, she emphasized that “packaging is important”. Being able to navigate a difficult problem and meeting and to influence stakeholders to be on board with your ideas are core leadership skills. Confidence is perceived as competence and if you want to be taken seriously, you need to communicate impactfully.

How are you honing your communication skills? What does your packaging say about you?

“Put your hand up for the most difficult assignments …”

“… and deliver on it.“ You’re not going to get the right visibility by fixing easy situations. If you want to get noticed, make positive things happen in challenging areas. Just make sure you’re ready to tackle these tough assignments (see Indra’s point about being competent). Failing to turnaround a bad situation will not help you establish a strong reputation.

What is the most difficult task facing your firm right now? How can you ready yourself to be a part of the solution?

“Embrace life-long learning”

In the past, firms trained the front lines and briefed senior management. With major shifts in technology and business, senior management must stay ahead of their competitors by constantly learning and using that knowledge to develop better strategies. Firms are now training their executives so they can brief their teams. Change management is becoming the norm and it’s forcing all leaders to “read more and question more”.

What was the last thing you learned? How are you staying informed of new technologies in your industry?

During this talk, Indra emphasized how her Asian values and support system contributed to her success.  She recounted how her mother would help her at home and on occasion, her mother would give feedback to her during a business call about how she’s handling the call. Despite having every right to ignore her, Indra would acquiesce and follow her mother’s guidance as a sign of respect. She recognized that if she wanted her parents’ support, she needed to play her role as well.

This story taught me two important lessons: Leverage your heritage as a strength and be kind to your parents (especially when it’s not easy to do so).

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During a recent trip to Los Angeles, the head of sales for a top financial services firm reflected on his career and shared with me that the #1 factor for most employee’s success, including executives, is the quality of their boss.

When you work for a manager who is a superstar, they will continue to move up in their career, which creates space for you to advance. If they get promoted, there is a good chance that they will actively pull you up with them as long as you have a strong working relationship and continue to perform.

If you don’t work for a top performer, you run the risk of that person seeing you as a threat since there is a good chance you’ll end up taking their job. Instead of focusing on their goals and finding ways to outperform their peers, they will expend their energy holding you back and shooting down your ideas. It’s not personal, it’s self-preservation.

Poor performing managers will also have trouble fighting for the limited resources of the firm and influencing the organization to focus on your team’s initiatives. This means working with smaller budgets and working on low-priority projects.

If you are a high-performer, you want to work for someone who is constantly growing so you don’t outgrow them. An easy way to tell whether someone is a superstar is to look at their work history. In their LinkedIn profile, bio, resume or website, do you see any of the following:

• Promotions every 2-3 years
• Activities that show they are learning new skills
• Thought leadership or involvement in industry groups
• Recommendations or endorsements from others
• Credentials that match those of the senior leadership team

You may want to change your boss if they are (1) staying stuck as a mid or lower-level employee that’s been in the same role, title, and function for the last 10 years, (2) trying to limit your exposure to other senior people or departments, or (3) constantly taking credit for your work.

Your boss matters so if you are ambitious and want to move up in your career, follow someone who is heading to the top. If you work for a true superstar, they will pave the way for you as long as you can keep up just like you will pave the way for those behind you. If you can’t find a great boss and still want to move up quickly in your career, then you might have to switch firms or strike out on your own.

Photo by Kiran Foster

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You’re hardworking and confident in your abilities.

Unfortunately, if you’re working at a high-performing firm, everyone else feels the same away about themselves.

Ask yourself: Do others recognize me as a top performer?

If you’re not sure, then they probably do not. It’s not because you’re not good – it’s because most people are not focused on you. Like you, they are too busy working on their own careers. To succeed professionally, you need others to be aware of and acknowledge your capabilities.

I’m not asking you to pander to other people. Your self-worth is not determined by what other people think of you and to sustain excellence, it’s important that you do great work for yourself and not because you want to impress others.

Other people matter only because they can assess your value to them and they determine whether you get promoted if you work for a firm or win the business if you work for yourself.

To ensure your success, focus on these three core activities at work:

Continuously hone your craft

Whether it’s sales, research or design, you want to master every aspect of your job. Reflect on your work quality last year to assess how much you’ve improved. The more you are embarrassed by your work last year, the more you’ve improved since then.

To start systematically mastering your craft, break down your function into core elements. If you’re a consultant, your major buckets might be business development, industry knowledge, your specific consulting expertise and project management. For each of these elements, drill down to the tangible skills you can build.

For business development, you might include the following:

• Building rapport – networking
• Focused listening and needs analysis
• Qualifying the opportunity
• Organizing your approach
• Persuading others
• Pitching your ideas
• Negotiating

You can improve each one of these skills through guidance and practice. To hone your craft, you must develop a passion for it. In her book Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, Wharton Professor Angela Duckworth sums up her research on top performers with two practical equations:

Talent x Effort = Skill

Skill x Effort = Achievement

To sustain the effort needed to turn talent eventually into achievement requires one to devote the time to practice deliberately. It’s difficult to put in the time needed if the interest is not there.

Identify your interests and strengths and carve out time daily to improve yourself. Take courses, read books and talk to the masters in your field and industry.

Focus on the right stuff

If you’re talented, curious and ambitious, there is a good chance you will want to start new initiatives or be pulled into various projects to help your company improve and drive results.

As a team player, your tendency will be to join many of these initiatives. It’s important for you to understand that your time is limited and not all initiatives are worth it for you. To be successful, you want to align your energy to help your company achieve its top priorities at the given time.

Working on your firm’s priorities helps you gain the right visibility because top initiatives are typically staffed with and overseen by key leaders. To figure out what your firm is focused on, listen attentively to the CEO town hall and closely observe what the top leaders at your firm are working on. If you work for a public company, read your firm’s annual report and the CEO’s letter to the shareholders to glean insights on the core focus for your firm.

Also, ask your boss where you can best contribute. Make sure to ask for details so you fully understand the necessary outcome. Your goal is to find out what you should be doing and how to go about it. Ask your boss for specific examples to gain insights into the behaviors and results he’s looking for.

Once you know your firm’s top priorities, join those project teams and deliver results.

Build a reputation for being helpful

The reputation of the lone wolf might sound appealing but it rarely gets you to the top.

In a recent conversation with the Head of HR at a Fortune 100 bank, she highlighted the importance of taking on cross-functional projects to build up the right relationships:

“As you move up in your career, your goals will have a broader scope requiring coordination across different functions and lines of business. The more you’ve helped others, the easier it’ll be for you to marshal their help for your projects.”

To better help others achieve their goals, continue honing your expertise and widen your network so you can add more value. Be generous with your time but be judicious as well so others don’t take advantage of you (I recommend reading Adam Grant’s Give and Take to learn how to spot a Taker). Your goal is to become a true resource for others around you.

Do others come to you for help? If not, then you might need to work harder on your reputation as a trusted giver.

Working on these three areas consistently requires perseverance:

• Deliberately practicing your skills every day can be a grind.
• Working on your firm’s top priorities even when you may not completely agree is difficult.
• Giving your time and energy to others takes time away from your own projects and interests.

If you can stick with these three activities, you will stand out from the rest.

Inspired by Change Anything by Kerry Patterson and Grit by Angela Duckworth

Photo by Banalities

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As a high-performer, you want to do a great job in EVERYTHING that you do.

It’s understandable.

It’s what made you successful.

It’s also what will limit you if you apply it too broadly.

To iron out all of the kinks all of the time requires a big time investment. The more time you spend on the minor details, especially with low-priority tasks, the less time you spend on meaningful work.

Whenever you feel overwhelmed by administrative or low-value work, revisit your priorities list. Determine your priorities by reflecting on the intersection between what you want to do and excel at and what your firm or boss needs from you at the moment.

Once your priorities are clear, rank your tasks so they align with your priorities. The key idea is to spend most of your day on top-ranking activities that will help you achieve your core career goals. This is much easier said than done since urgent but unimportant tasks frequently hijack our tasks list.

If you are frequently mired in low-value tasks despite using a clear ranking system, it may help to analyze your daily actions more closely. Find the points in your day where you get distracted by low-value activities and notice the habits that get you off track. Once you identify your bad habits, isolate and change one of them and see if you are better at following your task list. Also, frequently review your priorities since they will change as you progress in your career.

Always be clear on what you want to accomplish with each task and remember:

For less meaningful tasks, good enough is good enough.

Inspired by Extreme Productivity by Bob Pozen

Photo by Lindsey Turner

The post When you’re flooded with emails and other low-value tasks … appeared first on Robert Chen.

Ryan Holiday, in his new book, Ego is the Enemy, makes a great point about not confusing talk and recognition as real accomplishment. Look at what you’ve done and what you’re currently doing and ask yourself – is it of substance?

Are you impressive or do you just sound impressive?

Be honest.

The post When you’re trying hard to impress others … appeared first on Robert Chen.

In every Olympics including this year’s games, new world records are being set by those who continue to innovate the way they train and perform. In renowned expertise researcher, K. Anders Ericsson’s, book on performance, Peak, I came across this quote that served as a great reminder.

“Progress is made by those who are working on the frontiers of what is known and what is possible to do, not by those who haven’t put in the effort needed to reach that frontier.“

To innovate and be better than the best, first emulate the best (like Ben Franklin).

A few easy-to-understand-yet-difficult-to-do tips:

1. Practice purposefully by staying one or two steps outside of your comfort zone
   • You know you are at the limits of your ability if you are engaged in an activity that requires your FULL concentration and effort
2. Study the best performers in your field and learn their mental representations
   • What are the thoughts and practices they developed about their craft that allows them to accurately assess and fix their own mistakes?
3. Find a way to get concrete feedback for your performance so you can track your progress and pinpoint where you are falling short
4. Believe you can be better than the best
5. Work harder than everyone else you know

“When you want to achieve something and you believe that you can, you work harder”

– Philip Zimbardo, Stanford Psychologistm in The Time Paradox

In your quest to be better than the best, don’t be surprised if you hit a few plateaus. When you do, step further out of your comfort zone to reveal the particular gap in your skill set. Set up your practice to work on the isolated issue only. This should help you move beyond the plateau.

To make the world better, we should all strive to be better than the best. If you follow the steps above consistently and persistently, you have a good chance of getting there.

Photo by Marco Paköeningrat

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“So, what can I do to get promoted?” 

Many of the managers I coach have told me this scenario is becoming more and more common. In an era of ever-shortening job tenures, employees seem to be taking the initiative on advancing their own careers more than they used to. They’re less likely to wait for someone to give them what they believe they deserve.

That may not always pay off. Instead of admiring your initiative, your manager may find your request annoying, entitled, and lacking in the self-awareness it usually requires to earn a promotion. In fact, after reading my article on asking for what you want, one senior executive wrote to me to vent his frustration on precisely this point. Here’s how he put it:

“there’s a certain level of accountability that’s missing in our society today. Before you ask, I think you need to demonstrate a level of proficiency/impact … I have had people ask me for more when they haven’t finished their “current job”. One needs to be self-aware and assess where he is before asking for more. I am put off when folks ask for more too early. This is also the number one gripe managers have with millennials.” 

He goes on to suggest that employees ask themselves (before asking their managers),

“What do I need to do before you say yes?”

To get the guidance you need without coming across entitled, consider doing the following before you approach your manager:

1. Master your current role

Doing your job competently does not mean you’ve mastered it.

In Joe Azelby’s book, Kiss Your BUT Goodbye, he highlights how what he terms “PSA”, or “Premature Self Adulation,” limits one’s career. The key point is that you want to have a clear picture of your abilities—specifically, one that squares with your boss’s view of them.

You may believe you’re doing a great job, but is that recognized by others and reflected in the less-subjective measures of your performance? If you’re in sales, for instance, are you the top seller on your team? If you’re in a service role, are your client-satisfaction scores the highest possible?

Before you ask for a promotion or more responsibility, crush your current job by doing every aspect of it consistently better than others. “Satisfactory” probably isn’t good enough.

2. Know your WHAT as well as your WHY

To make for the most productive conversation with your boss, know not just WHAT you want but WHY you want it. Sometimes your boss may not be able to give you WHAT you ask for at the time that you ask for it, for reasons beyond her control – office politics, market conditions, what have you. But she may still be able to meet your requests in other ways if you can articulate your WHY.

When you ask for a promotion, what is the real ask? Is it more engaging work, better access to key clients, developing your skills, earning more money, etc.? None of these is necessarily more valid than the others, but you need to be clear and honest about your rationale. Once your boss knows why you’re interested in a promotion at this stage, they’ll find ways to accommodate you as best they can if they truly value you.

3. Make it easy to say “yes”

Be ready to have something to show for yourself that proves your worth. Have specific evidence of your performance. Especially if you’re worried your boss will feel you’re not ready, you want to show that:

• You’re already doing what will be asked of you in the new role
• Your new role will help your boss or firm achieve their strategic goals
• Others, including those senior to you and your boss, will vouch for you

When you show how your promotion helps your boss and remove many of the risks, the decision becomes much easier to make.

The next time you want to ask for a promotion, remember to first:

1. Crush it in your current role
2. Understand clearly WHAT you want and WHY you want it
3. Collect evidence that makes it hard to say “no”

One bonus tip is to pick the right time to ask. Know what’s happening around you – if you’re not in the right industry or your firm is experiencing tough times, there might not be any room for you to move up. If you’re in this situation, figure out what you want and why you want it. This will help you decide whether it’s worthwhile to stay or to go.

Adapted from Robert’s article at Fast Company.

Photo by Jason Hargrove

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At some point in your career, you will encounter uncivil situations at work.

Your colleague knowingly takes credit for your work. Your boss berates you and actively blocks your next career move. Your colleague interrupts you in a meeting or checks their email during your presentation.

No matter how others disrespect you, your response to these uncivil situations is what counts.

To preserve the peace, most people let it go and respond with silence. This may work in the short-term but if the issue persists, silence often shifts to violence in the form of passive-aggressive behavior, disengagement or in some cases, real violence.

To be take back control of a situation that seems out of your control, consider the 5 C’s:

Clarity

Get a clear and accurate picture of what is actually happening. What assumptions are you making about the situation and the other person’s behavior?

What you might perceive as being unreasonable or unfair may be legitimate and justified from the other person’s point of view.

For example, if your co-worker jumps in during your presentation at work. You may perceive that action as taking credit for your work while your colleague thought she was jumping in to help you out because you seemed to be struggling.

The best way to challenge your assumptions is to ask the other person why they did what they did. It’s important to keep a neutral tone when you ask as opposed to using an accusatory one. To help you stay neutral, give the other person the benefit of the doubt first.

Contribution

Many times, other people’s actions are a response to your actions.

Look closely at your actions and see if they might be misperceived. A good question to ask yourself,

“Why would a rational, good person do

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