You may have started working in the job you trained for, at the company you once dreamed of working for. Or you may be in a job that is not the one you wanted, and you plan to “jump ship” at some point.
Whatever your work situation, you can follow this set of tips, which will help you grow not only as a professional or within your current company, but also as a person and for future jobs.
1. Listen more than you talk
According to Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, this was the best advice his father ever gave him, and the main principle that has helped him grow in business.
Most people love listening to themselves and dominating a conversation. But you know what? Nobody learns anything new by listening to themselves. Become the eternal apprentice and absorb everything you can from others.
Listening more than you talk is probably one of the best-known skills of all, and also one of the least practised.
A business deal is not closed by talking; it is closed by listening. A master of a trade did not become a master by talking and teaching. First they had to listen and learn from others.
If you work for a company, whether you plan to stay or leave, keep your mouth shut more and open your ears much wider. Let yourself be taught. And as you move forward in life, always keep the humility of an apprentice.
Apply it to your personal life too. When you are with a group of friends or acquaintances, learn never to take up more than 30% of a conversation, because not only will you learn nothing, you may also wear the group out if you talk and talk without stopping.
2. Learn to write and express yourself
It seems obvious, but it isn’t. In this day and age, there is still a high percentage of people whose writing makes you want to cry because of the number of spelling mistakes in it. And worst of all, they have no intention of doing anything about it.
Recently, after I made a video explaining my doubts about how cryptocurrencies are valued, hundreds of comments appeared from people who claimed to know all about investing, in order to tear down my arguments. As soon as you read certain comments, anyone can tell you are dealing with an expert in nothing. When you read “Carlos, its obvius you dont have a clue what your tolking about”, it is clear that this person cannot possibly have learned about finance, because to learn about finance you have to read, and someone who writes like that has clearly read very little.
The same goes for the way we express ourselves. How we say things matters more than what we say. In the world of companies and business, we will sometimes have to be honest and direct, but that is no reason to be disrespectful. You have to learn to deliver a clear message without hurting the person who receives it.
You can considerably improve the way you write and express yourself in 3 months if you seriously set out to learn
Learning to write correctly can get people to take you seriously, while learning to express yourself can open many doors for you in the future.
There is a little poster going around on Facebook that is rather funny. It says: “I cant see myself with somone who makes me reely hapy.”
So, along with the importance of learning to write and express yourself, add the importance of learning to speak in public, whatever your job and profession.
3. Don’t worry about your first job. Just get going
A bad job is better than no job at all. You have to start somewhere. Don’t think that because you have a dead-end job you cannot learn. Give your best in that job until the time comes to make the leap to a better place.
Being behind a McDonald’s counter today doesn’t mean you have to stay behind that counter all your life. But behind that counter you will have co-workers, bosses and even a business system you can learn from.
Once again, use your ability to learn while you gain a different kind of experience. Remember that it is all about continuing to progress in life and in your career. Bad jobs give us economic fuel while we look for the job that meets our expectations.
4. Acquire social skills
It has been shown that social skills open more career doors than hard work and talent. You may have a lot of talent, but if the person responsible for promoting you doesn’t know about it, it is as if you had nothing.
The same happens with hard work: you can work yourself to death and have someone else take the credit.
The best jobs are not found on job boards, but through acquaintances and friends. You have to keep widening your circle of contacts and become someone other people want to have in their circle.
In the United States, the job of a lawyer defending a confessed murderer is not so much to try to prove his innocence as to make the jury like the client, because there is a basic principle: people find it hard to send someone they like to prison.
Something similar happens in the business world. Sometimes an executive promotes an employee not for their work or talent (though that counts too) but simply because he likes them. Some will call it cronyism. We call it social skills.
5. Ask for exactly what you want
You would be surprised how much you can achieve if you tell people what you really want. Sometimes we don’t ask for a pay rise or a promotion because we are afraid of being fired.
At other times we put up with a lot of crap for one simple reason: we haven’t told anyone that we are not willing to put up with it. And at other times, the terms we agreed on are not met and we keep quiet.
As an employee, you have goals. The company, as a company, also has its objectives. Make sure you help it meet those objectives and ask for what you think you deserve. But remember, you have to do it from a position of “knowing how to express yourself” and with social skills, showing at all times how you have contributed and how you are going to contribute to the company’s mission.
An employee has to prove their worth as a worker and a professional. The company also has to show that it knows how to treat valuable employees. And as the saying goes, you already have the no, so there is no harm in asking.
Remember the story of this man, who showed everything you can achieve once you lose your fear of hearing no.
6. Increase your skills and widen your comfort zone
Every day you should learn something new, both personally and professionally. Companies are constantly changing, and technology keeps advancing. When the time comes, a business owner will choose what is best for the company, and clearly they will pick the people who suit the company best.
As for the comfort zone, if you are comfortable in your job, something is wrong, because to make progress you need to be constantly uncomfortable, embracing and loving that discomfort.
By discomfort we mean constantly taking on new challenges. Most people who get up with no desire to go to work, because they know they will face the same daily monotony, start sliding into a depressive spiral that in turn discourages them from leaving that comfort zone. By contrast, the person who takes risks all the time has neither the time nor the wish to stop and overthink. And the truth is that he is not that worried about being replaced at the company tomorrow, because for him, change and risk are already part of everyday life.
See also: 7 psychological traps that can hold back your success in your career and in business
Featured image: J. Simmons, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr.
