How to Stand Out as an Employee

Most of us have a desire to fit in at work. Fitting in can provide acceptance, support and friendship among our colleagues. There’s a nice warm feeling of safety that comes with that.

At the same time, though, most people don’t want to be viewed as average and replaceable or to be unknown or feel invisible. And, importantly, to access growth and advancement opportunities requires us to differentiate ourselves.

The purpose of this article is to provide a 7-element strategy to enable you to stand out, in a positive way. It’s a tool to help you to be better known, noticed, recognized and well-utilized for knowledge and skills you bring to the organization.

The 7 elements that make up this strategy are designed to help you to hit the ground running in building your identity, your personal brand, as a member of your organization. We recommend that you adjust this strategy to fit the role you have, your development needs, and your work requirements. While launching this strategy is the start of a self-development process that will continue to evolve into the future, it’s also one that we believe can well support you in reaching a number of shorter-term goals.

The 7 Elements

Demonstrate trustworthiness.
Perform each task of your job at your very best every day.
Understand how you come across to others.
Strengthen your identity as a person of substance.
Display quiet self-confidence.
Think strategically.
Apply excellent oral and written communication skills.

These are skill-sets that we all can master. There’s more than one skill within each of the 7 elements, so let’s spend a moment on each one, to make sure you have a complete understanding of what each includes and involves.

Demonstrate trustworthiness. We want to know that people we work with, especially those we look to for help or leadership, have strong integrity. One of the questions we all ask of one another, silently, is this: Can I trust you to care about me, my success, my well-being, to do what’s right? Think about behaviors you’ve demonstrated yourself or observed in others. Which behaviors show trustworthiness? Which behaviors can weaken or destroy trust? If you want to stand out positively, trustworthiness is a measure you can apply to each action and word, in a momentary thought, before you speak or act. This skill of thinking before acting and speaking is a key component of Emotional Intelligence called self-regulation. Master this.
Perform each task of your job at your very best every day. This is a secret to becoming a high performer. Over-deliver. Do more, always go the extra step, and always meet deadlines and commitments. Do whatever it takes, whether it’s working harder or continuously improving your knowledge and skills through training and practice. Do this with enthusiasm, a positive attitude and without complaining or pointing this effort out¹. Use assertive language such as I will — not I’ll try. This, and your willingness to help others without taking credit, will help you to become a Go-to Person for colleagues and managers.
Understand how you come across to others. Listen to yourself speak. Look at yourself. Stand up straight. Sit up straight. Manage your body language, including how you walk. What’s your style? Never allow your appearance or body language to be a distraction. You are always making (and reinforcing) impressions. Dress appropriately for the setting and the company culture, in a way that is a little more polished than your current role requires.
Strengthen your identity as a person of substance. A person of substance adds value. They create objects, thoughts or emotions. They accomplish things, either through thought or action. They are present. Be prepared and early for meetings, seated towards the center, not in the back. When you’re a person of substance, you also form effective work relationships; you make others feel good about themselves, you’re available to help others, you give credit to others for their ideas, and you are a visible contributor.
Display quiet self-confidence. Self-confidence with humility is what we’re talking about. Self-confidence is not the same as arrogance. It doesn’t include bragging. It is not developed or displayed by making others feel small. It’s internal, rooted in a solid sense of self-worth and it’s demonstrated through calm, effective ways of dealing with people and situations. It is developed and made visible by being the best you can be, including actions such as communicating well, adding value, continuously learning, and helping others.
Think strategically. Learn the company’s mission, vision and goals. Use this knowledge to find ways of improving your own work and work processes to ensure the way you perform is aligned with these. Check in with your internal customers and internal suppliers to see how you’re doing at meeting their needs. This is part of being a team player to help the organization to succeed. Unleash your curiosity in ways that matter most to the organization. Use it to find ways to improve your methods and improve your performance results; discuss ideas and suggestions with your boss to come up with ways you can help meet the organization’s strategic goals in the way you do your job.
Apply excellent oral and written communication skills. You need to be an excellent communicator, electronically and person-to-person. There is a wide range of communication skills. Develop your knowledge and skills in giving constructive feedback, soliciting feedback for your own improvement, accepting criticism, resolving conflict or disagreement, negotiating, making presentations, and Emotional Intelligence. Learn proper grammar and punctuation and proofread thoroughly. These skills will help you to build credibility as someone who cares about doing things well and correctly. Become an excellent listener. Give people your full attention and ask good questions. Be concise in your speaking, removing the ums and ahs, avoiding rambling and speak with clarity. Speak up, humbly and respectfully. Offer people help without taking over their task or responsibility.

These 7 elements include many skills and knowledge areas that take time to develop. Take your time and work on them gradually, in any order you choose. This is a self-development guide that can help you to be a high performer with strong skills in communicating and working with others. You can, you will, and you may already be thinking of additional elements that will help you to stand out as an employee. Keep going! We are convinced that following through with the 7 elements will help you to stand out, while also helping you to fit in.

One thing we’re certain of is this: The best project you’ll ever work on is you.

¹If your current job is classified as non-exempt (you’re paid by the hour) you’ll need to discuss working any overtime with your manager to obtain approval. In that case, we recommend you follow your company’s policies; however, other than obtaining the required approval, we recommend not discussing your extra effort, as doing so often comes across as bragging or complaining.

Please share your thoughts, opinions and ideas below. We’d love to hear from you.

Would you like to find out about our coaching services? Contact us as follows:

Telephone: 603-801-2416

E-mail: NadeauCoaching@outlook.com

Comment Below, or Message us on Facebook – LINK: http://Facebook.com/nadeaucoaching

Visit our new Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/405884627320359

Do Workplace Politics Matter?

What do you associate with the words, “workplace politics?” Typically, people respond to this question with “back-stabbing,” “kissing up,” “spreading misinformation,” “playing games,” “dangerous” and “I don’t want anything to do with it.”

But, as with most things related to people, it’s not black and white; while some individuals use politics in a way that hurts others, not everyone does, and, there are shades of grey. Either way, politics is a serious topic and it can make or break your career. Once you start climbing the career ladder, political skills become increasingly important for your success.

Many of us try very hard to stay out of workplace politics. But, avoiding it usually doesn’t work. Just being part of an organization makes you a participant, by default. It’s not uncommon for people to become pawns in someone else’s political strategy. You may not see political events unfolding until you’ve fallen into or been pulled into them. What can help to avoid the dark side of company politics is understanding how the politics in your workplace works and how people fit.

When we understand the political environment, we can find effective, positive ways to promote our purposes and objectives and even advance own careers. We can get what we want at work without compromising our values.

Build Your Position of Strength

Your Position of Strength is a foundation that can provide you with essential protection in the event you become a target in someone’s political strategy. Your ability to build a substantial Position of Strength depends on three key elements: your behavior, your performance, and your work relationship with your boss. These are the same elements that create your personal brand. These three elements form your reputation and can influence others to respect and support you. Therefore, these are your top three priorities. Let’s touch briefly on each one.

Rule 1: Your behavior reflects the the best version of you.

Build and present an attitude of positivity and enthusiasm.
Your values and the Company values are the best guides for your behavior. Demonstrate ethics and integrity. Adopt a set of operating principles, such as the following:
- Be fully honest, with everyone.
- Do what’s right.
- Act with the greater good in mind.
- Treat everyone with respect at all times. Don’t participate in or silently support gossip, and don’t speak negatively about anyone.
- Prevent confidential information from being discovered.
- Keep your promises and commitments.
- Never take credit for the accomplishments of others, especially if you helped them.
Be careful choosing those whom you’ll trust with personal information, such as your thoughts, dreams, fears, goals, preferences, problems, challenges and experiences. While transparency can be an important way to strengthen relationships and build trust, blind trust is not wise. We’re not suggesting that you suspect everyone of wishing you ill, but not everyone cares about your well-being. That’s a reality in today’s workplace.
Build and strengthen your self-regulation skills. This is a key component of Emotional Intelligence. There are two points I’d like to emphasize, two skill-areas that are critical to master:
- In any conversation, know when to keep your mouth shut. The rule of thumb is, listen 80% of the time; listen and learn.
- Manage your emotional reactions. Get training or coaching on self-regulation, an important element of Emotional Intelligence. Learn the process of responding calmly, respectfully, constructively, professionally and positively no matter what someone may say to or about you, no matter what someone may do, or how they do it. Keep your cool. Manage yourself.

Rule 2: You’re a high performer.

Deliver excellent performance, consistently, no matter how hard you need to work to do it. While being a powerful performer in itself is not enough to ensure your success, it provides a platform to launch your career and to build your brand. Add value in work assigned to you, and volunteer for tough assignments aligned with your job priorities. Over-deliver. Make it your signature to go the extra mile. But don’t tell people about it, don’t brag, and don’t complain about how hard or how long you work.
Learn the company’s mission, vision, and goals, products, services and customers. Understand how your job and work responsibilities fit into the big picture. Continuously develop knowledge and expertise in what you do, to be a resource to co-workers, a Go-To Person.
Make it a personal mission to continuously build knowledge and skills that will strengthen current performance and prepare you for future growth. Examples include the following:
- Building effective work relationships
- Giving constructive feedback
- Eliciting and accepting feedback
- Resolving disagreements and conflicts
- Negotiating
- Teamwork
- Brainstorming
- Understanding and meeting the needs of key stakeholders, such as internal customers and suppliers
- Specific job-related skills

Rule 3: You have an excellent work relationship with your boss.

Your work relationship with your boss is the most important one you have at work. Focusing on this is critical; don’t assume that because s/he hired you, your boss is committed to your success or has your back. Take responsibility for developing and sustaining a strong relationship with your boss. Keep in mind, also, that your behavior and performance impact both the nature of your relationship with your boss and your ability to succeed at your job.
- Adapt to your boss’s style of work and communication. Use the communication tools s/he prefers unless something urgent is important to share right away and/or requires his/her immediate attention.
- Always be on time for meetings with your boss, and be well-prepared. Don’t take for granted that you can be a little late or unprepared.
- Be professional; by this I mean don’t kiss up, don’t flatter your boss, or brown-nose. Your relationship with your boss is not about those superficial things, which, by the way, could actually have a negative impact on how you are viewed.
- The importance of good communication can’t be over-emphasized. Discuss your assignments to ensure you and your boss are aligned on what’s expected of you. Get agreement on priorities. Have regular one-on-one meetings to update your boss, to get feedback on how you’re doing and to discuss any issues or concerns s/he needs to know about.
- Take cues from your boss as to how much personal chit chat s/he prefers and the boundaries of that chit-chat.
- Determine what information about work progress and obstacles your boss prefers you share, and proactively provide it so that s/he does not feel out of the loop, can help you when appropriate, and is satisfied that s/he can trust you to keep him/her informed and aware.

Now, you’re building your brand, your reputation, your Position of Strength. It’s time to focus on understanding the politics in your workplace.

Understand the Political Environment

Accept the fact that all workplaces have politics. An organization is made up of people who have their own histories, feelings, needs and goals. We all want success, but what that means is different to each of us. And, people have different approaches to succeed and to get what they want or need to achieve our goals.

We all seek to influence others, to be respected and valued and successful. The interdependencies that exist throughout organizations ensure we depend on others’ actions and decisions. Some people are open and others are secretive about their desires and plans. And so, as we work, our assorted histories, feelings, needs, goals and approaches come together, creating politics.

Following are 7 tips:

Treat workplace politics as you would any other job-related skill. Research and read about it, identify people who are skilled at it, and learn by observing them.
Continuously improve your communication skills and your emotional intelligence skills. Learn how to deftly handle public criticism, embarrassing situations, and betrayals.
Build your personal brand and network of associates. Politics is about establishing the right connections who provide you the support you need to achieve your goals.
Be courageous and positively assertive. Instead of silently allowing people to steal your ideas at meetings, for example, respond calmly and pleasantly. You might agree with the idea, noting that you had suggested it earlier and you’d like to discuss it further.
Learn what to talk about, with whom. Don’t over-share with the wrong people.
Choose your battles instead of focusing on being right all of the time. Prioritize.
Be less predictable. The more predictable your behavior and choices are, the easier it is for people to take advantage or to sabotage your progress.

Summary

Organization politics are pervasive. To assume that understanding workplace politics isn’t necessary is a mistake that can impact your satisfaction and success at work. Once you have developed some valuable knowledge and experience and/or advance into a leadership role, you are likely to be viewed as a threat to others in a competitive work environment. This is because you’re at the point where, with or without intention, you are a potential competitor for what someone else wants–a position, power, a staff, or something else.

In most organizations, once you are viewed as a threat who can prevent a colleague from achieving their goals, you become vulnerable. If you are unprepared, you may end up being left behind, unable to succeed. The optimum time to learn the politics in your organization is early in your experience there, before you become a threat to others.

What advice would you offer others to learn and manage workplace politics? What are your thoughts on this article? Please share your thoughts and opinions.

Recommended Reading

“The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace,” by Cary Cherniss and Daniel Goleman, edited by The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations” copyright 2001 by Cary Cherniss and Daniel Goleman, Jossey-Bass publishers.

Are you interested in finding out about our coaching services? Contact us as follows:

Telephone: 603-801-2416

E-mail: NadeauCoaching@outlook.com

Comment below or on our Facebook Business Page – LINK: http://www.Facebook.com/nadeaucoaching

Join our new Friends of Nadeau Coaching Facebook Page and Comment – LINK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/405884627320359

What is Resilience, Why is it Important, and How Can We Build It?

Resilience is usually referred to as our ability to bounce back from adverse events, tragedies, losses and mistakes. We all experience these. Following are some examples:

Loss of a job
Debilitating injury or illness
Making a serious mistake
Traumatic violence
Divorce
Family and Relationship Problems
Workplace or Financial Stressors

Resilience involves moving past self-limiting thinking and going to the outer reaches of our potential to find and take a path forward. It is a mental reservoir of strength that we can call upon from within ourselves in the hardest of times. It enables us to adapt. It’s more than bouncing back; Deloitte refers to resilience as our ability to bounce up.

We know that resilience is an inborn human capability that can be developed and strengthened in anyone. Everyone has the ability to build the requisite skills and attitudes. Building these capabilities is a journey, one that takes time and concerted effort. It’s like building muscle to get physically fit. While some of us have stronger resilience than others, we can all grow stronger. But, developing and strengthening our resilience muscles requires focus, self-awareness and self-discipline. Let’s look at what this will involve.

There are Three Domains of Resilience:

Mental Resources, the first domain, includes an individual’s style of thinking, feeling and reacting, which is the framework shaping one’s response to events. This domain also involves several high level skills in communication, problem-solving, and behavioral and emotional self-regulation. In addition, Mental Resources include feelings and beliefs such as hope and positive self-worth as well as a mindset for adapting.
Relationship Mastery is the second domain, centered on development and maintenance of close, supportive personal relationships; this includes emotional intelligence and other interpersonal skills.
Environmental Conditions form the third domain. Organizational and/or an individual’s cultural values and norms slice through the other two domains, like a boat’s wake across water, therefore influencing both of them. Cultural values and norms help shape an individual’s core values, beliefs, and social circles as well as affecting relationships formed, determining what skills are valued and impacting problem-solving approaches.

Developing Your Mental Resources Domain

This domain is the foundation for resilience. It is not the hardships that shape our future success or happiness but, rather, it is the way we think, feel and respond to those hardships.

To assess the support available through your current mental resources, take time to reflect. Try asking yourself some questions:

How often do you feel overwhelmed by a challenge, and focus on envisioning the worst that could happen? How much time do spend in that thought pattern? Minutes? Hours? Days? Longer? You may not be able to change an event, but you can change how you interpret and respond to it.
How often do you resist change? Do you tell yourself or others, ‘I don’t like change.’ or ‘I’m not good with change’? Human beings are no strangers to change. It’s a part of life. Accepting that you cannot prevent or undo certain changes will free you to focus your attention on what you can do.
When someone hurts your feelings, how do you react? Do you keep it to yourself and hurt for days? Do you become angry and cut off the relationship? Do you feel hurt and calmly and pleasantly talk about it to fully understand and discuss the matter? Might you assume it was a mix-up and let it go? Do you hurt but let time heal? Which reaction would serve you and the relationship best in the long run?
When you make a mistake, do you tend to beat yourself up? Have you told yourself and/or others, ‘I’m such a screw-up! I never do anything right.’ Or ‘It wasn’t my fault, it was (someone else’s). What else are you telling yourself about this event? How will this reaction help you to move forward? What would be a better reaction?
One way to strengthen your Mental Resources is to participate in courses/training to help you develop and implement an action plan to build your self-esteem, improve your impulse control, regulate your emotions and emotional reactions, and adapt to changes. Consider trying on-line neuroscience training or if you prefer personalized, face-to-face learning process, find a coach.
Reflect on your past experience. Your past is often a source of learning and discovery for us. What are some examples of times you’ve successfully responded to difficult events? How did you move through these events? What went well? What did you learn?
Self-talk can be good for us or can hold us down. What we tell ourselves about an event has significant impact on our reaction. One way we can turn this in our favor is to practice the skill of Realistic Optimism. Realistic Optimism is looking beyond the negative aspects of a situation to find the opportunities it presents. It takes courage to look for positive things instead of being blocked by the negative.

I observed a good example of this recently:

About a year ago, in the height of the pandemic, several friends discussed the negative effects of the COVID-19 situation on their private and work lives. In the course of the discussion someone began to mention some positive aspects. For example, working from home enabled this individual to put herself first in managing her time. As a result, she was able to start eating healthfully and to develop a daily exercise routine. She had taken off considerable weight and gone down several sizes in clothing. The discussion gained momentum among them and their attitudes and motivation were transformed. By focusing on the positive opportunities, their resilience tools came into play, and they developed strategies reap some benefit while getting through the pandemic.

Developing Your Relationship Mastery Domain

Do your current relationships provide you with a feeling of strong connection, acceptance and supportiveness? It’s these strong relationships we most often find among family, significant others, and close friends that can infuse the caring, empathy and understanding that can remind you that you’re not alone and support you in leveraging your resilience.

Sometimes we experience periods in life where we lack enough of these relationships. Consider building new friendships and connections. For example, joining new social groups can help you to find new one-on-one relationships as well as groups with shared interests and beliefs, that can become strong connections for mutual support.
Communication is a critical aspect of all relationships. We all can improve on our communication skills to develop more mutually satisfying connections with people. We recommend leveraging training resources, especially in-person learning opportunities, to build emotional intelligence skills as well as interpersonal communication skills such as asking for, giving and accepting feedback constructively and resolving conflicts or disagreements.

Knowing we are not alone and being strong enough to ask for help from close friends, family and colleagues, or from a professional, can make the difference between experiencing a long period of struggle and firing up your resilience skills earlier to help you move forward.

Developing Your Environmental Conditions Domain

Fully understanding the cultural values, norms, and beliefs that impact your situation is essential. Cultural influences may come from your workplace or your personal life. They influence both your Mental Resources and your Relationship Mastery — and, therefore, they affect your resilience. To strengthen your skills in this domain, we suggest the following.

Review the cultures that impact your values and beliefs and that, therefore, will impact your handling of difficult events.
Practice Mindfulness. Spend some time in meditation, reflecting on the positive aspects of your life.
Take care of yourself. Maintain a healthy diet, weight and fitness level. You’ll feel happier and you’ll be better equipped both physically and mentally to deal with stress.
Find a sense of purpose. This should be something about which you feel excited or passionate. It should be something you love doing, so that you’ll find joy in doing it rather than stressing about achieving it quickly. Then set goals and move forward to implement an action plan over time.
Initiate a process of problem-solving and prevention in your life. Reflect on your current situation to see if you can anticipate potential issues. One by one, take actions to deal with them proactively.
Help other people.
Avoid negative stress outlets such as alcohol or other substances, and eating unhealthfully. Instead, give your body what it needs to stay strong, and find positive activities that will help you to de-stress.
Build a network of people for social activities or for support.

Conclusion

People who are resilient are not free of adversity. They suffer losses and tragedies and feel all of the sadness, grief and pain associated with those events. Resilience does not change that. What resilience does is to enable people to marshal their resources to adapt well to adversity, loss, tragedy and other significant changes we encounter in life and at work.

We all have resilience capability, and we can all learn to build and strengthen our resilience by focusing on strengthening the associated skills and mindset. We can find training and development resources by reading quality material on-line, taking courses in person or on-line, and/or by hiring a coach.

It takes time and practice, but if we work at it on a day-by-day basis, we’ll learn and grow and become better at adapting. In the process, we’ll find new feelings of self-confidence, fulfillment, and success in our work and private lives. An outcome of strong resilience may well be a higher quality of life.

Let us know what you think.

Recommended Reading:

Resiliency Center Quiz LINK: https://www.resiliencyquiz.com/index.shtml

Deloitte Article, Building a Resilience Roadmap for the Modern C-Suite – LINK: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/building-resilience-roadmap-for-the-modern-csuite.html

Vawnet Article, Resilience, An Innate Human Capacity – LINK: https://vawnet.org/sc/resilience-innate-human-capacity

Are you interested in finding out about our coaching services? Contact us as follows:

Telephone: 603-801-2416

E-mail: NadeauCoaching@outlook.com

Comment below or at our Facebook Business Page – LINK: http://www.facebook.com/nadeaucoaching

Join our new Coaching Group on Facebook – @NadeauCoaching

Share this:

Share this:

There are Three Domains of Resilience:

Developing Your Mental Resources Domain

Developing Your Relationship Mastery Domain

Developing Your Environmental Conditions Domain

Conclusion

Are you interested in finding out about our coaching services? Contact us as follows:

Share this: