Set Boundaries for Yourself and Your Career
John Neral
I Help Mid-Career Professionals Find a Job They Love or Love the Job They Have // Executive & Career Transition Coach // Host - The Mid-Career GPS Podcast
Quick Networking Tip to Build Your Mid-Career GPS
Networking can be scary, but not when it’s someone you know. Go to your LinkedIn profile, click on My Profile, and click on Connections. Here, you’ll see your connections. There are people on that list you know well. Reach out to them and schedule some time to “reconnect.”
Yes, everyone is busy. But warming up your existing network but reaching out to people you already know is a great way to foster that networking relationship. Ask questions about them. Be curious about what’s going well for them at work and what isn’t. Make an offer to connect them to someone in your network! When it comes time for you to share, you’ll be more relaxed and have a better conversation.
When it comes to networking, serve first and ask later. When you go for your ask, clearly communicate who is an excellent connection for you or something you need.
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“Challenge Ideas and Not People”
This was my favorite “norm” or “ground rule” I used to set for my team meetings. I still use it when facilitating a workshop or group meeting.
As mid-career professionals and leaders, setting these norms or ground rules – and making sure everyone is accountable to them, including you – ensures a safer and more productive environment.
I used to think these weren’t important. I thought, “We are all professionals. Everyone should know how to act.” But that couldn’t be further from the truth.
As leaders, you set the tone and environment for what you expect from your team. What message does it send when you allow someone on your team to disrespect another team member during a meeting?
We aren’t going to agree with everything everyone says, but that doesn’t mean we get to be disrespectful or dismissive of others.
When I first introduced what it meant to “Challenge Ideas and Not People,” I did so because we were getting ready to do some transformative work, and it wasn’t going to be easy. I wanted my team to know that it was okay to disagree, debate and challenge, but it was never okay to disrespect or attack someone personally for what they said. While it was something everyone agreed upon, there were times when we, as a team, had to enforce that norm and remind people when their behavior didn’t align with it.
Leadership is challenging. We must SHOW UP and be there for our teams, organizations, clients, and ourselves.
To provide further context, here is a quote from the Setting Ground Rules Chapter in my book, SHOW UP – Six Strategies to Lead a More Energetic and Impactful Career.
“Whether you are in a leadership role or not, you have a golden opportunity to build trust and a healthy connection based on every interaction you have with someone. Whenever I’ve built teams, I’ve looked at every avenue to see where trust is present and where it is broken. I have examined where I can build trust and where I have to repair the damage that has been done. You can’t work with a new team at full throttle and expect change to happen overnight. You have to build that change one tiny step at a time as people begin to trust you and realize that you aren’t there to do any harm.
To begin setting ground rules, identify those characteristics or qualities that are absolute for you. These ground rules are non-negotiable as you never want to break them. For example, if communicating is a key value for you, what does effective and meaningful communication look like? As a leader, take time to ask everyone on your team what’s the best way to communicate with them individually when you need to relay information specific to them. Naturally, communication to the whole team is delivered either virtually, by formal memo, or in person, but when it comes to information specific to them, would they prefer it an email, text, phone call, or in person?”
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If you’d like to learn more about the power of setting boundaries for yourself and your career, take some time to listen to this week’s episode.
I break down ten ground rules that will help you personally and professionally. Whether you are looking to improve yourself or your leadership, this episode will help you examine why these ground rules are important for you and your team and how to start setting them.
After all, “How would you SHOW UP if you knew your value was non-negotiable?”