It used to be you considered yourself successful in your career you were a Manager, perhaps working your way from the floor, to leader, to supervisor and finally to management. From Management your worked your way to upper management then to the executive suite. While that paradigm still exists in today’s world career success may depend on how flexible and nimble you are within the workforce.
1 Yes – communicate effectively – verbally, written and physically – When we think of communication skills we tend to first think of verbal. Do we verbally communicate well? Can people understand what we are trying to communicate? Do we curse around others? Do we use slang or sloppy English such as ‘you guys’ or ‘yeah’? It is always wise to mimic the speech of the people in power. Are we good listeners? Next we tend to think of written. Are we able to write well? Can others comprehend what we are conveying in writing? Do we have a good concept of grammar and is our spelling accurate? What many of us don’t realize is that our physical appearance is also a way of communicating. Does our clothing say I have respect for my position within the company? Does your dress attire convey a sense of power, prosperity and self-confidence? Do you offend others with smells of perspiration, nicotine, perfume? Are your clothes clean and pressed? Do you have so much bling on you can be heard clanging down the halls as you move from one room to the next? Do you have the same hair-style that you had 20 years ago?
2 Yes – Be a team-player – Do what it takes to get the job done. Document your job duties so you can cross-train your co-workers if you ever need to be absent. By having written procedures that others can follow you are showing that you can write, are proactive in your duties and are showing concern for the health of the company in case you need to be replaced. If you have subordinates be a mentor to them.
3 Yes – Be a Problem Solver – Contribute towards the overall success of your dept/co
Can you save the company $, can you stream-line a process at work? – Meetings are excellent places to show that you are a problem solver. Take notes and participate in the meeting. Don’t just sit there. When interviewing candidates I often as a situational question to see if their response reflects that of an analytical mindset or if the response alludes to that of a person that requires constant direction. Following is an example of a situational question that I employ when interviewing candidates: You were promoted into a new position in a newly-formed Business Unit. It is not clear what your role is supposed to be, or what the expectations are for this position. You’ve tried asking your leader once, but the response wasn’t very helpful. What would you do?
A poor response to the above question would be, “I would ask my leader again” An analytical and appropriate response would be, “I would ask my co-workers and related department heads what they expected to receive from the person that filled this role. I would research via the intranet and internet what are some of the related job duties for this particular position. I would join groups and associations that could better assist me in excelling in this role. I would document all my newfound information on this role so that the next person that fills this role would have a base to work from. I would provide my leader and human resources with my job description research material.” The second response utilized a variety of resources both in-house and out of company context.

1 NO – Commit Social Blunders
a) Contradict boss in public
b) Act in-appropriately at a co. event 1) poor table manners, 2) dance suggestively 3) get drunk 4) over-eat or order too many cocktails on the company dime 5) bring food to a company meeting 6) twirl your hair, bite your nails, scribble drawings, text, or any distracting thing during a company meeting 7) whisper, talk in another language, text during a company presentation whether it be on-site or off-site. 8) at the company pic-nic is there more focus on your clothes, or lack thereof than there is on you, if so you need to adjust your wardrobe. – at any company social functions be them in-house or out of the office don’t trigger anyone’s weirdometer.
2 NO – Send poor email messages1) jokes of any kind 2) gossip 3) is the message confusing? Could it be construed as negative? 4) are there spelling or grammatical errors? 5) don’t abuse the cc or bcc function on email. Will the original recipient appreciate that you cc someone else? Will the bcc reveal to the original recipient that you copied them on the message.
3 NO – Negativity 1) put down co-workers 2) bad mouth boss 3) bad mouth your company 4) bad mouth the industry (Even a fool is counted wise when he holdeth his peace – Proverbs)