Would you like to accelerate your professional growth?
Have you ever wondered what it takes to achieve it?
At an academic level, the answer is simple: study more to get better grades. It is not easy, but the path is known.
However, what happens in those areas where the answer is rather “unknown”?
Or, at least, it is not so obvious.
At a professional level, for example, it is not common to openly listen to what is really required to grow.
The “rules of the game” are not visible to everyone. What should we do in those cases?
Study harder to get better grades? In other words, work harder to get promoted?
Maybe, although – as you should know by now – it’s not always enough.
It is often important to stop for a moment and better analyze the true rules of the game.
Here I share some of them with you:
5 strategic rules that will help accelerate your professional growth
Rule #1: Winning over people allows you to win the game.
In pool, if you pocket the eight ball early, you lose the game. In life, if you can’t win people over, you lose the game.
It’s that simple.
Whether we like it or not, life and business are based on human relationships. In that sense, it all depends on how you relate to other people.
The job interview, the increase, the promotion, the new client, the new proposal, the potential project, the budget, the schedules.
Each of these will be determined, to a great extent, by your ability to influence people.
Rule #2: To get what you want, you need to ask for it.
Many people believe that if they work harder or achieve better results, then people will give them what they deserve.
They believe that those around them will do “the right thing” and when “the right time” comes they will give them what is “their due.”
The truth is that a person will avoid giving something until it is not strictly necessary. An employer, for example, will delay the raise as long as he can.
A customer will want to pay as late as possible. A supplier will want to get paid as soon as possible.
If it is not you who asks for what you want, unfortunately, no one will do it for you.
Do you want a day off? ask for it. Do you want to telecommute? ask for it. Do you want a raise? ask for it.
People do not have an obligation to give us what we ask for but – in my opinion, we do have a responsibility to ask for what we want.
Rule #3: The result is more valued than the effort
The proper way to measure how good you are at what you do is, in essence, to achieve excellent results.
It sounds simple, but most often measure their performance based on the time and effort they put into a task.
The reality is that a person can spend hours doing something and still not deliver a quality result.
Focus on doing what it takes to get better results, not just trying harder.
Sometimes you will need to spend more time and effort, other times you will need to hone your technical knowledge.
Other times you will need management skills and/or soft skills, and of course, at times asking for help is what will be most needed.
Rule #4: People will judge you on your communication
The fact that people judge you for your communication is neither positive nor negative, it is simply a fact.
The reason they do it is that communication is the only thing visible. Everything else is invisible.
People can’t see feelings, thoughts, and intentions, and strangely enough, they can only measure your abilities through results.
Those around us only see the communication that we “send” as a representation of all the intangible things that we have to offer.
It is that communication, through our clothing, posture, words, gestures, tonality, ideas, arguments, stories, and proposals, which forms a perception of us.
Said perception, or projection, is – finally – what will determine if they see you capable or not if they recognize you as trustworthy or not if they notice a potential or not.
Rule #5: Being yourself is worth the risk.
In every interaction we have, two options are presented to us: play not to lose or play to win.
If we play not to lose, we will avoid taking risks at all, we will try to “stay calm”, “fit in” and, above all, to “be liked”.
By doing so we will save ourselves problems, but we will lose opportunities to create real relationships.
And it is said that a relationship is strengthened when both parties are willing and free to ask the uncomfortable questions, create an environment for connections/feelings, and say what nobody wants to talk about.
It is in those moments that an important personal bond is created. This requires opening the possibility of not being accepted.
It is not always easy, especially if we need people’s approval to feel good.
Hence the importance of having the courage to take the risk of being ourselves, your professional growth will thank you.
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