Career & Office

Promote Yourself Without Seeming Self-Centered…

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Talking about your accomplishments can make you appear more competent, but it can also make you seem colder, less friendly, and more selfish. In contrast, self-deprecation, deflecting credit, or sharing setbacks can make you seem more approachable—but less competent.

Researchers found that you can walk this tightrope by practicing “dual promotion,” or pairing a self-promotional statement with one that highlights or compliments someone else.

Start by identifying whom you want to promote alongside yourself. At the office, praise your colleagues’ work before you mention your own. If you compete in some kind, compliment your competitor. If you’re engaged in a more individual endeavor—for example, writing a novel—compliment a colleague whom you admire. Be sure that your compliments of others are genuine and specific. Overly general praise lands as disingenuous and fake.

Then, focus on yourself. Share your meaningful achievements—and don’t be shy about claiming the credit you deserve.

Get Your Team Back on Track When a Project Is Failing

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A key part of your job as a leader is to keep your team motivated and on track when things start to go sideways. Here are some strategies to try if a project is failing and you need to boost your team’s morale.

Your team’s project might not be going well because the organization’s goals and vision aren’t clear, so get the team together to re-establish or re-define these goals. This can breathe a second life into the project and allow you to troubleshoot, locate pain points, and define a path forward as a team.

Then, to remove obstacles, reprioritize people’s work, reassign work altogether, and reallocate project resources (including budget) as necessary. These sorts of interventions will help reduce redundancy and clear bottlenecks that are getting in the way.

Next, recognize that different people are motivated by different things—for example, career-development opportunities or monetary incentives—and tailor your leadership approach accordingly. And schedule a weekly project meeting to create regular feedback loops about what’s working (and what’s not) so you can course-correct quickly.

Finally, celebrate small wins. Recognition boosts morale and promotes optimism—both of which lead to a sense of forward momentum on your team.

Use Storytelling to Get Buy-In for Organizational Change…

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When tackling urgent organizational problems—for example, a broken culture or a product that needs updating—you need more than a strategic plan. You also need a compelling story that will motivate your entire team to work toward a common goal. Here’s how to craft it.

  • Simplify your message. When you think about the change you want to lead, ask yourself: Can I capture my vision on a page? A paragraph? A word? Your first task is to craft the equivalent of a short letter to your team explaining your vision.
  • Honor the past. Acknowledge the good parts of your team’s history. Make it clear that you intend to preserve what already works, and show sensitivity toward the people who aren’t so sure about your plans.
  • Articulate a mandate for change. Reflect on the “why” of your plan. What problem are you trying to solve? What’s the cost of not solving it? Your answers must be persuasive enough to override people’s familiar beliefs and behaviors.
  • Lay out a path forward. Establish goals and targets. Get comfortable with the numbers and pick a few to use as plot points in your story. And be prepared to repeat yourself, wherever the opportunity arises: in presentations, town hall meetings, team huddles, and one-on-ons. Frequent communication will help your team internalize your change story.

Harness the Power of Curiosity at Work…

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When you can’t focus, your mind tells you that a “quick” look, click, or check is what you should do right now. If you find yourself constantly derailed by your unfettered curiosity, here’s how to intentionally direct it to help you identify new ideas, opportunities, and creative solutions to problems.

First, identify what’s useful—and hold off on everything else. Productive curiosity is directed toward something that you actually want and need to get done. If you come across something else that catches your interest, add it to a list of future items to explore when you have more time.

Then, apply intentional curiosity to problem solving. Give yourself some time and space to figure out what’s truly causing an issue before leaping to solve it. This pause is where you can apply intentional curiosity by doing research, investigating the data, and talking with stakeholders.

Finally, be curious about your work relationships. Challenge the assumptions you hold about your colleagues. Consider what challenges they might be facing, both at work and at home, and express interest in offering support where you can. This sort of collegial curiosity will uncover opportunities to deepen your relationships and improve your team’s culture.

The Skills You Need to Grow as a Leader…

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If you are a mid-level manager, you might be surprised to learn that your skills, while highly valuable, don’t directly align with those needed for the top position. Here are the attributes you need to develop to get there.

Forward-thinking mindset. To transition to a leader perspective, actively participate in strategic planning sessions, contribute to defining the organization’s future direction, and align your projects with these strategic objectives. Stay informed about industry trends and emerging technologies that can shape the future of your business.

Calculated risk-taking. To develop a leader’s comfort with calculated risks, take on projects where you need to assess and mitigate risks strategically. Gradually expand your risk tolerance and learn from the outcomes of your risk-management decisions.

Optimism. Practice mentoring and motivating your team members, emphasizing chances for learning and growth. Focus on opportunities rather than obstacles, and develop a collective resilience to inevitable setbacks.

Resilience. Seek critical feedback—and respond to it with gratitude, composure, and a growth mindset. And practice approaching stress with a measured composure.

Empathy. Engage in active listening during project meetings and cultivate an understanding of team dynamics and diverse perspectives.

Inclusiveness and trust. Solicit input from team members with varied perspectives and backgrounds, and build trust by consistently delivering on commitments and being transparent in your communication.

Protect Your Team from False Urgency…

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Does everything always feel like a fire drill on your team? False urgency, or unproductive busyness that doesn’t lead to meaningful progress, can unwittingly damage your team’s morale, well-being, and performance. Here’s how to combat false urgency on your team.

First, recognize the signs. Are you and your team in a chronic state of overwhelm and reactivity? Do you and your team only have time to do “real work” in the evenings or on weekends? Try to pinpoint the source of this urgency. Are competing demands creating pressure?

Then, prioritize ruthlessly. Help your team separate the tasks that are actually urgent from the ones that can wait. And remember, sometimes subtracting work and discontinuing low-stakes projects is the best way to boost productivity on the work that really matters.

Finally, protect your team from external requests. The inflow of requests we receive at work can be daunting. Some may be genuinely urgent, but most things can wait. If your team members are juggling many outside requests, give them clear guidelines about which ones to accommodate and empower them to question requests that have unrealistic timelines or fall outside the team’s remit.

Make Your Career Transition Easier on Yourself…

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The accelerated pace of technological change is reshaping jobs in ways that require you to constantly reinvent your career. Here are three ways to make what can feel like a daunting transition easier.

First, finding your next role almost always takes longer than you expect. If you want your liminal period—where you must navigate between a past that’s over and a future that’s still uncertain—to lead to real discovery, you need to experiment with divergent possibilities while delaying commitment to any one of them.

Next, human beings are very good at either-or thinking: Either I’m leveraging my old skill set or I’m pivoting to something new. But making a career transition usually entails doing both simultaneously. Consider staying in your old job while exploring your options until something new becomes viable.

Finally, when it comes to making a career change, the connections you already have might not be that helpful. You need to build new relationships in two ways: by bridging, which involves creating or reactivating relationships beyond your current social circle; and by bonding, which involves deepening ties and finding community within a close circle of kindred spirits.

How to Set Expectations When Managing a Project…

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Managing the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders is one of the biggest challenges you can face as a project manager. But it’s a critical skill to develop—directly addressing misalignment of expectations can have tangible benefits, including reducing safety incidents and increasing productivity. Here are some strategies you can use to close the expectations gap.

  • Consider the root of everyone’s expectations. To prevent conflict and confusion, collectively set goals at the outset, and understand what it will take to meet key performance indicators (KPIs). Equally important is continually reevaluating these goals as the project moves along.
  • Don’t take sides. As the project manager, your job is to find the common ground of all your stakeholders.
  • Foster relationships with your team. Project management requires a significant level of emotional intelligence. The more people trust you and feel psychologically safe, the more comfortable they’ll feel to speak up when issues inevitably arise.
  • Build a project structure that’s sturdy but flexible. Even the most well-organized projects can go awry. A project’s structure needs to be sturdy enough to move forward, but nimble enough to adapt when timelines and expectations shift. The easiest way to do this is to break projects down into small, functional steps.
  • Keep the team grounded in an overall vision. Collective purpose is one of the strongest human motivators. Establish it early and keep it top of mind—especially if competing stakeholders lose sight of that overall mission as the project progresses.

How Manipulators Get You to Buy into Bad Ideas…

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Have you ever had a bad feeling about a pitch for a product, idea, investment, or course of action? There are five manipulation tactics people use to get you to buy into a bad idea or dubious partnership. Here’s what to look out for:

  • Stealing credibility. Manipulators inauthentically build their credibility by invoking big-name brands or high-profile people they’ve worked with in the past. Always do a little research to make sure their work backs up flashy claims on their resume or website.
  • Exploiting shared threats to win trust. Look out for people who always try to bond with you over shared negative opinions. Carefully consider any pitch that relies on shared enemies or common threats to build rapport.
  • Faking market validation. Before hiring or entering a business partnership with someone, be sure they haven’t exaggerated (or worse, fabricated) their performance in whatever marketplace they belong to.
  • Discrediting the competition. There’s nothing untoward about critiquing a competitor’s quality. But trying to discredit them by painting them as tainted, illegitimate, or taboo is a manipulative strategy that makes people fear stigma by association if they make the “wrong” choice.
  • Dividing and conquering. If you find yourself pressured to adopt a consensus view that you’re unsure of, investigate whether it has genuine support across your team or organization—or just compliance. Ask colleagues what they like about the idea, and take note of the sincerity of their responses.

Help Your Team Develop—and Apply—New Skills…

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Skill-building is critical in a constantly changing environment. But are your employees able to apply their skills effectively in different contexts? Here’s how you can use the 70/20/10 learning model to ensure your employees get the right mix of learning and application:

  • 10% formal instruction: This portion of the learning strategy involves investing in structured educational experiences that focus on specific skills, like workshops, courses, and training modules.
  • 20% social learning: This is the learning that happens when we’re exposed to others—for example, through interactions with mentors, coaches, or peers. To harness the power of this 20%, you might set up a mentorship program or a peer-to-peer education program to help employees learn from their colleagues. Regular team-building activities can also foster a culture of continuous learning and help improve skills.
  • 70% learning in the flow of work: This involves learning on the job through real-life experiences and tasks. For example, employees can improve their problem-solving skills by working on complex projects, or their communication skills by preparing to deliver a presentation. Regular feedback sessions can also help employees reflect on their performance and what they’ve learned, as well as identify areas for improvement.