By focusing on three skills only, you can turbo charge your career. While there are numerous competencies and behaviors that one needs to be a high flier in the corporate race, mastering these behaviors will give you an edge over the others.
Active Listening
Active listening is the building block of leadership skills; the other abilities use this extensively and are built on it Through active listening, or listening well, you demonstrate to your audience that their points have been taken note of.
As a result of this, they feel accepted by you, and trust builds over a period. The way you indicate you are listening intently is by performing several observable behaviors. To improve your active listening style, follow these tips
- By making encouraging responses such as “great, wow . . .” and “I that’s Interesting . . .” or sometimes repeating what the person has said, this is known as paraphrasing, signals that you have understood the meaning and emotions behind the message and that you are genuinely interested in the conversation.
- Try using nonverbal language such as looking directly into people’s eyes, nodding your head, leaning slightly forward in their direction, scowling, or pleased where appropriate; This will convey that you are actively immersed in the conversation.
- Even though you may not be interested or your opinion is in sharp contrast to what’s being said, avoid interrupting others while they’re talking.
- Recollect and show interest in things they’ve said in the past by reminding them of the conversation.
Resist the impulse always to turn the conversation to your experiences (opinions come with them) and to find immediate solutions. Listen carefully first; get into problem-solving mode much later.
Trust
The ability to trust and be a trusted one is an extraordinary one. Though both are different, the development of one leads to the improvement of other. The more your manager, peers and corporate leaders believe you, the more committed they’ll be to your relationship with them, and the more active you’ll be.
The trust develops over time—if they observe specific appropriate behaviors on your part. To become trustable, you must:
- Keep your conversation with them confidential, no gossiping
- Spend quality face to face time; don’t fiddle with your phone or keep using your smartphone during the meetings.
- Keep your promises to them;
- Frankly admit your errors and take ownership for correcting them; and
- Subtly tell your partners if and why you disagree or are dissatisfied with something, so they’ll know you’re honest with them.
Reality Orientation & Personal Vision
A good sense of current reality and a personal vision with specific goals is essential to turbo charge your career.
If you know your exploratory goals, potencies, what development you need, and the precise aid you’d like, it’s a lot easier for your manager to channelize the resources for you.
The higher the degree of cognizance, the more precisely you can convey them to potential helpers, the higher the chances that they will be able to assist you. You can build Reality Orientation by following these tips.
- You should know what you aspire the most and what is essential and treasured to you from your career standpoint
- Recognize areas in which you’re able to perform well, remember and tell your manager very concrete examples of behaviors you can play at the good-to-excellent level;
- Identify specific limitations or developmental areas you are cognizant of and at one or another point in time, others have given you feedback on similar lines. Give specific feedback. Start discussing your tentative one- to three-year goals to reach in your personal life and career; and
- Describe the reality of your abilities and situations accurately.
To turbo charge your career, you need to continually fine-tune your knowledge of self and incorporate new feedback and observations on a regular basis.
