Why We Get Stuck in Our Careers

Ever feel stuck in your career and don’t know why? Are there times when you feel unheard or not taken seriously? Does it seem like everyone else is moving up the ladder while you remain stagnant?

Question: How can I build a strong professional brand at work?

Answer: Your brand is what people associate with you - even if they don’t know your name. And they treat you accordingly - with or without respect, with or without reward, with or without opportunity. 

So how can you fix this to make all your hard work and potential count?

Brand Development is not a choice or a balance between intimidation/power and generosity/kindness, rather a development of mission/objective orientation in our ‘big picture’ and day-to-day thinking.

The mission is a larger, almost philanthropic goal —

McDonald’s might have a mission of ‘making people happy with great-tasting food’ (questionable yet plausible). 

The objective is how we gain revenue in exchange for providing value.

The latter keeps the lights on, the former keeps us light.

Focus on these as the two sides of a coin — neither one can be sacrificed in the pursuit of business success, and this is the cornerstone of building a culture for your company, and a brand for your customers to engage with.

Question: When should I be firm and when should I be forgiving?

Answer: Both, all the time.

Be firm in your principles and goals: all employees, stakeholders and yourself (above all) must fit this Culture thus created. 

Be forgiving of people’s mistakes, but firm in judging their ‘fit’ for your organization.

There is a value to the ‘pull’ orientation of “people work” (a better phrase than management, don’t you think?) in that we are playing on intrinsic motivations — actually wanting to succeed with the organization, rather than in return for some real or imagined incentives.

Employees who believe they are fairly paid are more engaged, are less likely to quit, experience less stress at work, feel healthier physically and psychologically, and are more satisfied with their personal life.

Personnel are not motivated in the long term by the ‘carrot and stick’ alternation of days gone by, certainly not white-collar workers with a college degree. They are motivated by a sense of fairness and opportunity, and a consistency displayed by Management in accordance with the spoken and unspoken culture of an organization.

Be unrelenting in the mission, ultimately, and lead by example.

The rest will follow (pun intended).

Learn how to build your personal brand by joining us for Arjun’s Online Accelerator Lab Tuesday, March 28th 10-11am PT and get valuable insights into climbing the corporate ladder on YOUR terms. Early bird registration is $19.  Register here.