Her Career, Her Life

Starting a new job can be very stressful, but stress is a feature of every job everywhere and it’s not always a bad thing.  A healthy level of stress can help us be at our best. 

But in our high pressured, fast-paced world how can we keep our stress levels at a ‘healthy’ level? In this final episode of Season 1, I talk to Kirsten Goodwin, a career coach who specialises in helping professional women find positive ways of handling stress at work.  Pick up a wealth of practical tips as Kirsten talks about her experiences in tackling stress herself and with her clients.  Visit www.kirstengoodwin.co.uk to find the Success without Stress short course.

This episode is all about how to be happy at work. This is a topic I was determined to include in this first season of Her Career Her Life, because I feel really strongly about it. I've given it lots of thought throughout my 30+ year career and I’m really looking forward to sharing my ideas with you.

I’ve not always succeeded in being happy at work - sometimes I’ve been downright miserable. I’ve also been angry, upset, frustrated, disappointed, bored, scared and probably just about every other emotion there is. But there are a number of practical steps that I'm sure will give you the best shot at happiness - or at least start to move you towards a happier frame of mind.

This episode is about how to build influence in your new job, and this episode goes hand in hand with the previous 2.  I’m going to introduce you to a tool I created for myself about a decade ago in my corporate career. I call this tool 'Influence Radar' and I’m going to explain what it is and how it works - and pretty soon it’ll become obvious where the ‘radar’ name comes from. 

Influence Radar is a simple but powerful tool that you can start using today to structure your approach to building a powerful network of support and influence in your new corporate role.

This is episode 7 and we’ve already started to address mistake number 3 - failing to build influence. In the last episode I talked about the need to get really clear on your personal brand - what people say about you when you’re not in the room. In this episode (and the next one too) I dive into the detail of 'influence'. I explain what I think Influence is (and what it isn’t) and also why it’s so important.

If you didn’t already listen to episode 6 on personal branding I’d really encourage you to go back and do this work on thinking about what you want to be known for before you continue with this work on influence. When you’re clear on your personal brand and you’re ready to build a strong and valuable sphere of influence you’re in the right place.

In this episode I dive into the detail of influence, and I'll show you how influence starts by building trust and giving value, ahead of receiving anything.

In this episode we move onto mistake number 3, failing to build influence. 

This is a big mistake and I’ve made it several times in my career.  I think it goes hand in hand with the mistake of 'playing it small' because when we play it small we tend to operate in a small world. We interact with those who'll help us get the job done, and those who we’re friends with.  We tend to ‘keep our head down’ and avoid the limelight.

I can describe all of this so well because I practiced it to perfection - I used to call it ‘flying under the radar’ this might sound clever and I guess that was my way of justifying it.  For years in my early career I limited my sphere of influence, because that kept me in my comfort zone, but I also wanted the career success that you only see when you move beyond your usual boundaries and get uncomfortable.  And therein lies the challenge that many of us face.

If we want to be successful we have to get uncomfortable - very uncomfortable - and we have to get used to that feeling - almost learn to embrace it!

Power Stories capture you at your best, demonstrate what you’ve already achieved and hint at what you’re capable of. 

Your power stories will be different to mine and it’s important you uncover them as they can lead to great things!  They help to bolster your self-confidence and remind yourself of what you’re capable of. By telling them to others you can make sure they’re aware of what you’ve achieved and give them a more complete sense of who you are.

Do you ever secretly fear you’re in over your head in your new job? Are you receiving praise that you think is unwarranted?  Do you think you might get exposed as a fake? Do you often wonder why they hired you? If this is you, you’re not alone. Over 70% of the population has experienced Imposter syndrome. I have and I’m keen to share my lessons and free exercise, so you can tame your Inner Critic and stop feeling like a fraud. 

In this episode and the next I’m going to cover the second common mistake we can all make when we start a new job (go back to episode 1 if you’d like a summary of all 3 common mistakes).

Mistake number 2 is all about ‘Playing it Small’.

Playing it small is almost the opposite of hitting the ground running, I characterise it as ‘sliding into’ your new role, not wanting to ‘make a splash or a fuss’. It’s a bit like hanging around the edges at your teen disco, not wanting to create a stir, not wanting to stand out, too afraid to have an opinion of voice a challenge.

If you’ve just started a new job, project or other big challenge, it’s likely that you’re going to meet a lot of new people and gather a ton of information in a short period of time.  How can you avoid drowning amongst all this data?  How can you stay sane in this intense period of learning and find the ‘signal in the noise’?  You’ll find lots of practical advice in this episode to help you avoid overwhelm and thrive in the first few weeks and months in your new job.

In this episode I look at ways of making sense of that data and turning into actionable information. 

I also talk about the danger of overwhelm as you try to take on a mountain of new data every day, we can’t remember everything and you need systems and habits to help you retain what’s important and discard the ‘mental clutter’.

I’m all about practical advice that you can apply straight away, so here are my three tips to help you avoid drowning in all that data: 

- Create a proper system for retaining the information that matters

- ‘Defrag’ your brain by downloading your thoughts in a journal

- Book regular time with yourself to think about the information you’ve gathered and how to use it for the greatest impact

If you’re too keen to ‘hit the ground running’ by leaping to deliver in a new job, project or initiative you’re in danger of landing flat on your face. In this episode, I explore this mistake and give you some practical advice on how to avoid making it.

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Here’s what’s waiting for you inside this episode

Today we’re looking at mistake number 1 which I describe as ‘hitting the ground running’ 

If you’re new in a job there are a lot of things you don’t yet know.  If you’re new to a business you can 10X that challenge.

Despite how much due diligence and research you might have done into your new company there are just so many things you don’t know when you join a company - the sort of information you only find out from an ‘insider’

If you’re too keen to ‘hit the ground running’ by leaping into action on a new project or initiative, before you know some of this stuff, you’re in danger of landing flat on your face.

I’d suggest you invest time upfront in really getting to know some of your key stakeholders.  Meet them, talk to them - really listen to what they can tell you because it's likely to be gold dust to you

And this all means getting really skilled at the art of listening and building conversations with strangers.

And this isn’t that common a skill.  Not everyone is naturally skilled at listening - it’s actually quite rare.

I’m all about practical advice that you can apply straight away, so here are my three tips for learning to listen: 

Make the conversation about them and not you

Tune in to what’s happening to you

Make it a discussion!

In this episode I’m diving into the 3 common mistakes we can all make when we start a new job.  In the next 6 episodes I break these mistakes down and show you how to avoid making them. I’ve learned these lessons, so you don’t need to. I’ll be helping you every step of the way. 

Here are the 3 common mistakes you want to avoid making:

Mistake number 1

I call this mistake ‘hitting the ground running’.

This is all about leaping too soon to deliver, without building real insight into what matters and developing an understanding of ‘how things get done in your new firm’

This mistake comes from a good intention, you’re keen to make a ‘big and best’ first impression and that’s entirely understandable - after all you’ve worked hard to get to this point.  You want to prove to the people who hired you just how right that decision was and you want to repay their confidence in you by ‘hitting the ground running’.

Hitting the ground running isn’t everything we imagine it might be.

It can lead to making assumptions about goals, challenges, and logistics that can make your first attempts at delivering something valuable fall flat on its face.  Leaping too soon to deliver without building real insight into what matters and building bridges with the people that need to be a part of your new world of work can be disastrous.  

Mistake number 2

This mistake is characterised by ‘Playing it small’The reason we usually do this is because we’re doubting ourselves -  and talking ourselves out of stepping into our potential in this new role because we’re scared of making a mistake. 

Starting a new job IS scary.  Full stop.And it can make our inner critic - that gremlin in our head - go into overdrive as they try to keep us out of danger.

Mistake number 3

This is all about the way we can limit our impact by just focusing on our own narrow job role rather than building bridges and creating influence through an extended network.

No matter what job you do, what level you’re at, where you work, or what your goals are, achieving more influence is critical for success. And it’s even more important in a corporate environment that is matrixed and layered with many different stakeholders.

Influence may be the untapped life force behind your career.  

It’s a super skill that we know is valuable but in my experience, we only try and build it when we actually need it for something specific - like a career move or launching a critical new project - and that’s a mistake.

These are the 3 most common mistakes I’ve made and that I’ve seen others make.

We’ll cover the antidote to these mistakes across this season of Her Career, Her Life and I’ll release a new episode every Monday.

At the end of this season of Her Career, Her Life I’ll be hosting an episode where I answer your questions so if there’s anything you’d like my advice on I’d love to hear from you just email me at info@elisefinn.com