You have to market yourself @Work

If one wants to climb the corporate ladder quickly, he or she needs to be seen, heard and recognized for performance firstly by employers. For that you need to sell yourself to all kinds of people – employers, clients, and colleagues.

By marketing yourself well, you are promoting your skills and showing others what you are capable of. Here’s how to market your self:

Speak up in meetings: Contributing during meetings is a great way to sell your self and to get on the radar of the higher ups. Make sure you get credit where credit is deserved. Ascertain that your reports indicate you have taken all the efforts behind the project.

Stroll around for a few minutes everyday. Take a few minutes to take a round and greet all the people you know with a simple and exchange pleasantries. Volunteer to lead: Take the initiative to take charge of a project. Or accept a leadership position within a project.

Mediate a conflict: This will display your leadership management skills. Give your best performance: Vie for the employee of the month/quarter award if any in your company. It is the best way to expose your talent to the higher-ups.

Stay updated: Read industry publications, reports/magazines etc. Your colleagues will look up to you for advice and information and talk positively about you to others. This is sure to give you good third party publicity. Get to know people in other parts of the company. Nominate yourself for projects that will get you to interact with colleagues from other departments.

Volunteer to work on a project/task that others have rejected or have failed at. Succeeding where others have failed is a fantastic way to sell your self.Participate in extra-curricular activities. This will show off your talent in areas other than work, your all round personality and your sportsman spirit.

Expose your name: Contribute to your organization’s news letter/website/journal. Top executives read company publication, so you will be able to increase your personal PR as well as establish yourself as a leader in your area. So remember never shy away from promoting yourself. It can greatly improve your chances of getting ahead. ‘Promoting’ must not mean sycophancy but with contributory performance.

The above needs a positive body language as well. The first step towards impressing boss, colleagues or clients is to use the right body language. Studies on the subject show that 55 percent of all communication is non verbal. So here are some pointers to make an impact without words:

Comfort matters: When seated and discussing with colleagues, see that no part of your body is getting strained you are not facing a bright light sources and your hands are rested on your lap. While you don’t have to be at attention at all times, don’t slouch either.

Positive mannerism: It is always best to adopt mannerisms and actions that give off positive vibes. Show that you are responsive by leaning slightly toward the speaker, keep your arms open and nod from time to time. A smile can go a long way.

Psychologists refer to the habit of copying another person’s posture, pace of speech etc as mirroring. If done unobtrusively, mirroring a colleague when you are speaking with him/her can establish a connection or bond of liking and respect which can then be built upon.

It is all in the eyes: A person who avoids eye contact could be considered suspicious and dishonest. However, be sure to avert your gaze from time to time to avoid staring which can make the opposite person uncomfortable. Be very conscious of your body language and while it may not come to you immediately, practicing the above tips will help you make a good impression at work.

Sharpen your axe

Sapna, Ramesh, Steve, Meera, Matthew, Vikas and so many others in the organization complained of work pressure, unachievable targets, peer pressure, time management and loss of work life balance. Despite working hard, their performance was going down and impacting organization’s bottom line.



Who is to blame for poor performance of employees and business? Ask line managers; they blame it on HR for poor hiring. Ask HR; they blame it on line managers for poor management skills. Ask me, I would say, the Axe???? Now you will ask what (the hell) an Axe has to do in performance management business? Let me tell you a small story…


Once upon a time, a very strong woodcutter asked for a job to a timber merchant, and he got it. The pay was good and so were the working conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best. His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work. The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees “Congratulations,” the boss said. “Carry on that way!”.


Very motivated with the boss’s words, the woodcutter tried harder the next day, but he could bring only 15 trees. The third day he tried even harder, but could bring 10 trees only. Day after day he was bringing less and less trees. “I must be losing my strength”, the woodcutter thought.

He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on. “When was the last time you sharpened your Axe?” the boss asked. “Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my Axe. I have been very busy trying to cut more trees for you.”

Yes, the ‘Axe’ has a lot to do in a performance management business. This “Axe” for better performance is an employee’s competencies and skills. In any organization the call to sharpen the Axe needs be taken by HR.
Ask yourself a question “Are employees working hard without proportionate results?”. If the answer is yes, then probably, it is time to examine your employee’s ‘Axe” and sharpen it. In highly competitive business environment, the gap between existing capabilities of employee and required capabilities to compete in the market place widens much faster. A business that cannot bridge these gaps gets wiped off (lot of examples are there).

What to do?

Step 1: Finding Blunt Areas
Like the supervisor in the story, you need to have an evaluation mechanism that can find the skill and competencies gaps in your workforce. This evaluation can be done by streamlining your performance management system so that it could provide better data on skill and competency gaps. These competency gaps extracted as output of Performance Management System should be used to design training and development programs.

Step 2: Sharpening Your Axe

Well-designed training programs (which are focused on developing skills and competencies necessary for a specific job) help you improve employees’ erformance significantly and relieve them from work pressure. You can be gin by identifying the training needs, managing course ware, co-coordinate with faculties, manage training facilities and obtain feed back from your trainees & their managers about the effectiveness of the program. For mid to large organizations, it is possible only if your HR is equipped with a Training Management tool that can keep the Axe sharpened all the while.

The Wishing Well

On top of a hill overlooking a babbling brook stood a dilapidated stone well. The wooden frame which had once been used to raise water was broken and a discarded bucket sat on the ground nearby. The only thing that made this old well special was a small tarnished plaque that carried a three word inscription which read 'The Wishing Well'.

One morning a young man named Richard came upon the well and read the small plaque. Richard was a cynical young man and he scoffed at the idea of a wishing well. However, he was also very greedy so he closed his eyes and wished for a large pot of gold…just in case. He opened his eyes and looked around but nothing had changed.

As he prepared to leave, Richard happened to glance down into the well and to his amazement he saw a huge pot of gold floating at the bottom of the well. He immediately tried to reach down into the well but he could not reach the gold. Next he tried to use a piece of wood to retrieve the gold but again he had no luck. After many frustrating attempts, Richard finally gave up. He cursed the wishing well and walked away. Instantly the pot of gold disappeared.

The following day a young man named William came across the well and he too read the small plaque that identified it as 'The Wishing Well'. What William wanted more than anything else that morning was an engagement ring so that he could propose to his sweetheart Rebecca. He closed his eyes and made his wish. At first he saw nothing, but then as he glanced down into the well he saw the most beautiful diamond ring floating in an ebony box at the bottom of the well. Like Richard, William first tried to reach down into the well and then tried to use a nearby piece of wood - all to no avail.

After a great deal of frustration, he sat back and reviewed his situation. Then suddenly, in a flash of inspiration he knew what he had to do. He picked up the old bucket and walked down to the babbling brook at the base of the hill. After filling the bucket with water, he walked back up the hill and poured the water into the well. To his delight, he noticed that the level of the water in the well rose ever so slightly.

With a hint of success to spur him on, William began transferring bucket loads of water from the brook to the well. He worked steadily all day carrying buckets of water up to the wishing well. With each bucket of water he poured into the well, the ring floated closer to the surface. Finally as the sun was beginning to set, William poured in another bucket of water and the ring came within his reach. He grasped the stunning diamond ring and with a spring in his step he set off to propose to his Rebecca.

The best part about this story is that the Wishing Well really does exist and is available to each and every one of us. Whenever you set a goal, your objective instantly becomes a 'possibility'. It is as though it appears in the bottom of the wishing well. You can see it, but it is beyond your reach. Many people like Richard look for a quick and easy way to reach their goal but they inevitably get frustrated and walk away.

Those who achieve true success understand how life's Wishing Well works. Like William, they recognize that they must put in the time and effort to fill their well before they can collect their prize.

Today I'd like to encourage you to decide what you really want from life's wishing well and commit yourself to the process of filling your well in order to transform your dreams into reality.

FUN

1. Cigarette: A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other.
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2. Love Affairs: Something like cricket where one-day internationals are more popular than a 5 day test match.
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3. Lecture: An art of transferring information from the notes of the lecturer to the notes of students without passing through 'the minds of either'.
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4. Conference: The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present.
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5. Compromise: The art of dividing a cake in? Such a way that everybody believes, she got the biggest piece.
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6. Tears: The hydraulic force by which the masculine will-power is defeated by feminine water-power.
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7. Dictionary: A place where divorce comes before marriage and success before work.
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8. Conference Room: A place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everyone disagrees later on.
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9. Ecstasy: A feeling when you feel you are going to feel a feeling you have never felt before.
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10. Classic: A book which people praise but do not read.
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11. Smile: A curve that can set a lot of things straight.
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12. Office: A place where you can relax from the strenuous home life.
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13. Yawn: The only time some married men get to open their mouth.
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14. Etc. : A sign to make others believe that you know more than you actually do.
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15. Committee: Individuals who can do nothing individually and sit to decide that nothing can be done together.
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16. Experience: The name men give to their mistakes.
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17. Atom Bomb: An invention to end all inventions.
Regards,VenkatWhen somebody criticizes you don't worry, Stones are generally thrown only at tree full of fruits.
No person was ever honoured for wat they received but honoured & rewarded for wat they gave.