Resources Mentioned in video:

Developing Self Awareness Bundle 

Emotional Intelligence: you need to apply authentic kind of Empathy

The Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Productivity

References:

Holtz, O. (2020). Virtual Team Functioning: Modeling the Affective and Cognitive Effects of an Emotional Management Intervention. Group Dynamics, 24(3), 153–167.

Gabriel, K. (2020). Are Coworkers Getting Into the Act? An Examination of Emotion Regulation in Coworker Exchanges. Journal of Applied Psychology, 105(8), 907–929.

Prefer to Read? Here’s the full transcript

As more studies show Emotional Intelligence improves employee productivity and job performance, it becomes a more coveted skill in the office and one that every serious professional needs to develop.

So, first things first, let us quickly recap.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

A quick definition is that Emotional intelligence is when you can understand the emotions of yourself and others and manage your own feelings well. It shows a balance between intelligence and self-awareness.

I go into great depth in this in one of my blog posts on emotional intelligence and being able to apply authentic kind of empathy.

But in a nutshell, these are the four categories where your emotional intelligence will be assessed.

So let us quickly go through this before we get into the tips.

4 categories of Emotional Intelligence

First one is Self-Management where you are able to think clearly in situations where you feel stressed, anxious, or angry. And Self-Management indicates being able to separate yourself and how you should act from your emotions.

In other words, for example, even if you are really irritated by a co-worker, you somehow manage to count to ten if necessary, and you give a calm response rather than screaming and shouting even if that is what you want to do.

Self-Awareness. This is going to help you to change negative habits, thoughts, or behavior. And when you have a high level of self-awareness, you can recognize how your beliefs and emotions affect your thoughts and behavior.

Then we have Social Awareness. Now this, one way of looking at this is your ability to “read the room.” You can understand what others need to feel comfortable, as well as see social dynamics at play.

Social Awareness indicates how well you pick up on social cues or needs. One way of looking at it is, when you walk into a room can you pick up the ambiance over there? Is it stressed or tense?

Many people say that is having empathy or even psychic abilities at some point, but the thing is, you’re aware enough to understand what’s going on even if nothing is being said.

And then there is Relationship Management where you manage conflict well, you work well with others, and you develop positive relationships overall. And, the best part is, relational management indicates good interpersonal skills and that is something you really do need if you wish to climb the corporate ladder.

Emotional Management Affects Productivity

So, before we get into the tips, let’s also look at some of the evidence about how Emotional Management is affecting productivity.

The Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Productivity (2018)

There is a thesis paper called The Effects of Emotional Intelligence on Productivity and I’ll share a link to see the study later.

But essentials of that study were that emotional intelligence is becoming an essential area of study to determine a person’s potential for overall success as well as success in the workplace.

And it also pointed out that although non cognitive skills are not always a factor that leaders use in determining workplace efficiency, but those skills can impact productivity.

Now this was a study done, it was a single case study in order to explore the impact of these non-cognitive skills and the perception administrators and employees have regarding skills that are critical to their jobs and work performance.

The conceptual framework that was used for this study was that of emotional intelligence theory authored by Daniel Goleman in 1995, which studied personality qualities.

The focus of this study comprised of 6 skills: communication, self-confidence, teamwork, work ethics, problem-solving ability, and leadership.

Several patterns and themes emerged relating to the effects of emotional intelligence on job performance and productivity. In fact, the findings from this study can impact future of non-cognitive skills in the work environment and could positively impact social change.

Organizational leaders could use the results to develop strategies that would enhance their decision-making process and develop tools to promote employee production and productivity.

Increases team cohesion

From there, there was another study done by the University of Valencia in Spain which demonstrated that increased team cohesion happened when there is emotional intelligence amongst the participants because of the synergy effect. This produces enhanced team task performance and has a positive effect on the motivational processes within the team, thus leading to more team engagement. In other words, a team can do better than as expected.

Improves co-worker relationships

It also improves co-worker relationships. Now there is another study which was done in 2020 which focused on the role of emotional regulation in exchanges between co-workers. And there, of course where deep actors refer to employees who “are driven to regulate their emotions with co-workers for pro social reasons”.

And the employees who were able to do that have the ability to build strong relationships with their co-workers and that in effect demonstrates benefits in productivity.

Conclusions from studies on workplace Emotional Intelligence

So the conclusions that I’d like to quickly sum up from these studies is that firstly,

Emotional intelligence is an asset.

The studies have shown that emotional intelligence training improved employee productivity. And that people who are emotionally intelligent can come up with solutions from a holistic perspective.

So now, are you interested in improving your emotional intelligence so that you can excel at work?

Good. Here are my tips.

Tips to build your Emotional Intelligence

The first one is Practice Self-Awareness and here are four ideas that you can use.

You can do reflections in journals. You can also notice when you react to something on autopilot. Think about the feedback you receive and practice seeing things from other people’s point of view too, not just your own.

Following from the self-awareness, learn to receive criticism with grace and use criticism as an opportunity to learn and grow.

You should also likewise see conflict as an opportunity to learn and understand more about others because conflict is going to happen, whether you like it or not. Whenever you have two people there will be, many times differences of opinion and it all comes down to who is able to handle it better and stay in control.

And then of course, learning to “read the room.”

Now here’s some tips for you.

How well do you pick up on the feelings of people around you? It’s the same thing I said when you walk into the room can you pick up a sense of what’s going on and from there do you know who to go to when you need a solution?

And what “unwritten rules” do people follow at your workplace?

Being able to read the room positions you as a change maker. So, it’s in your interest to start observing people and also assessing how they react so that you can come across better.

And then, learn to listen to others. Don’t do all the talking yourself. Make space for others as well. And in meetings many times people think that oh you know, if they hog all the talk time they are going to come across as you know being very intelligent. That’s not quite true.

You should try to listen in meetings and make an effort to ask people what they think. That’s what emotional intelligence is about – you also care about others.

But that of course doesn’t mean that you don’t speak up and express yourself. Do not be afraid to pitch your out-of-the-box ideas or make sure your opinions get heard!

We’re not saying just listen and keep quiet. We’re saying listen and also speak up.

And work to people’s strengths. Now you will have lots of people with different strengths and different kinds of talents. They may also have shortcomings. You have to learn to be flexible to the different types of people who make up your team.

And, to position yourself as a really good candidate for a further leadership role learn to create an environment for each person to thrive, be engaged and innovative. Because in today’s modern times, a leader is as good as his people are.

And the first step of course is to develop your self-awareness and I’ve got a simple self-study bundle where there’s an eBook with developing your self-awareness guide as well as the workbook where you can note down your findings and I encourage you to download it.

Final Words

So, my final words on the topic are that people with higher emotional intelligence have an easier time managing their stress levels, building better relationships, and reading the room.

Prowess in managing your own stress levels means that you can calmly lead a team through high-stress situations. That’s what influential leaders do. When you build better relationships it can help keep your team members engaged and motivated. And when they are motivated, they work better. They are more productive.

And being able to read the room means that you can know the right person to approach when you’re tackling a problem, or you learn to take action when you notice that a colleague feeling stressed. You know exactly when to step in before things spiral out of control.

So, I suggest that you try these suggestions for size and then let me know. And as a parting question, wouldn’t life be great with effortless stress management, better relationships, and being able to “read the room”?

Especially if it helps you improve your productivity as well as that of others in your workplace.

High Performance doesn’t necessarily mean High Potential. Both traits aren’t mutually exclusive and why confusion sometimes happens during appraisal time.

Performance reviews use the spectrum of delivery based on the level of the employee and what is expected of them in their job role.

So the markers start with ‘doesn’t meet expectation’ all the way to ‘exceeds expectations’ and even being identified as a leadership candidate.

That’s when the problem starts. A High Potential employee will naturally be a High Performer but it’s possible the High Performer won’t have High Potential.

The number of times I’ve heard of professionals being promoted to management roles and then becoming failures in the new role can’t be counted.

These high performing professionals failed at taking their teams along with them to the kind of results that they had in their individual capacity.

They lacked the leadership qualities required for the next rung up the corporate ladder. Yet they were promoted based on individual performance.

I worked with a young professional way in my Big Four days on a complex assignment involving multi-location client sites.

To top it, there was a mercurial Chief Financial Officer whose temper literally sat on his nose. He was new to India and still adjusting to our culture. The Audit Partner and I had to treat him with kid gloves.

The young professional was an Audit Executive and performed well. He got a 5 on the Bell Curve annual appraisal and  promoted to Senior Executive. Going forward he would lead a small team for the location audits.

The following year he got the job done but required a lot of supervision from myself and other Senior Executives on the job.

Forget about High Potential he didn’t even demonstrate High Performance!

I gave him a 3 for the assignment marking. When the annual appraisal time rolled in, the Audit Partner wanted to rank him a 2, one number short of asking the person to leave or get fired.

After consulting the other Senior Manager, I requested to at least mark him a 3 as he had delivered on other audit assignments.

I also suggested  counselling him about applying his potential and being able to manage a team even when under pressure.

I left the organization a few months later but kept in touch with some colleagues. I learned afterwards that counselling was ineffective and this professional was unable to perform at the new level.

He was subsequently placed at a client’s place in a low pressure job. It was a dignified exit. One hoped he was able to apply himself and achieve success.

Call it the Peter’s Principle if you want, which refers to a person reaching their own level of incompetence.

I’d prefer to consider whether the person really possesses the aptitude and potential to be a leader. Or even wants to be a leader. Perhaps they are motivated by other elements of their lives.

One can’t blame organizations either, because performance is visible, tangible and measurable.

Potential is more subjective, method of measurement used and depends upon the end goals of the organization.

Unless qualities like leadership aptitude and change management are included in appraisals, they will remain hidden factors for identifying the potential of the employee.

Identifying High Potential Employees

As I mentioned earlier, the idea of a high potential employee depends upon the employer’s end goals and what they identify as HiPo or High Potential.

In an interesting article that I read some time back there is a clear pattern common across all industries when identifying high potential employees.

That is, the payoff from employing top talent – defined as the vital few who account for the biggest chunk of organizational output — increases as a function of job complexity.

The article noted that talented employees are “force multipliers”, raising the performance bar for their colleagues, and particularly for their direct reports.

By word and deed, they model and teach winning behaviors that shape high-performing cultures. Adding a star performer to a team boosts the effectiveness of other team members by 5-15%.

No wonder studies show that companies making proportionally greater investments in identifying and developing top talent show stronger financial performance.

Identifying these talented individuals becomes important for the organization. They also need to ensure that the employee being identified as high potential does possess that potential.

Progressive organizations often establish their own benchmarks and normally look for professionals who

• Will perform well in a senior management role
• Have the ability to improve performance within their business sector
• Have the drive and determination to move to the top of the career ladder within the company

These benchmarks are communicated to their employees and you would recognize them as criterion in your annual performance plans.

These include key performance indicators, achievements and behaviours that are likely to make somebody suitable for promotion.

There are numerous tools used including 360 degree appraisal systems and even personality profiling.

A Harvard survey found that 98% of companies have some sort of system to identify high performers, a select group that represents only about 3 to 5% of the workforce.

Meanwhile, staying in those elite ranks is almost as challenging as getting there. The same survey found that up to 20% of these rising stars drop off the list each year.

How to demonstrate your High Potential to the Boss

Whether you want to climb up the ladder to senior management or be picked for interesting projects you need to be proactive.

Your boss needs to see your high potential and performance to champion you.

Your organization might have its benchmarks and criterion but that doesn’t mean you can’t take the initiative to stand out and be visible.

Competence at your current job and achieving targets is a starting point, but it takes more than that to advance. This is true for any stage of your career.

Displaying Your Potential Early in Your Career

When you’re new on the job, focus on fitting in and making connections. That groundwork will build a stable foundation for your future.

1. Deliver results on time. Track and document your accomplishments. Develop a reputation for exceeding expectations and completing assignments on time. Identify challenges where you can propose solutions.
2. Support your boss and strive to make your boss look good. Study their priorities so you know where to devote your efforts.
3. Focus on learning. Keep the big picture in mind as you find out all you can about your company and your industry. Ask lots of questions, be observant, and read the latest news. Be proactive in your professional development.
4. Be open to receiving feedback. Learn about yourself too. Invite others to let you know what they think about your work. Be open to criticism and thank your colleagues for their comments.
5. Apply your knowledge. For your lessons to have an impact, you need to translate them into action. Analyze information to discover its practical applications. Make a list of takeaways each time you pick a coworker’s brain or attend a training or conference.
6. Be humble. Let your actions speak for themselves. Contribute to the team and share credit with others. Develop your Emotional Intelligence.

Displaying Your Potential Later in Your Career

By the time you’re in mid or senior stages of your career, your competence tends to be taken for granted.

Now, you’re more likely to be appreciated and marked against intangibles like leadership, vision, emotional and social intelligence.

1. Develop a specialty. Be prepared to let go of some responsibilities so you can leverage your strengths. Identify what you’re good at and what you like to do.
2. Provide a role model and be a mentor. Think about the qualities you admire in your own role models and adapt them to suit your style. Reach out to new hires and offer constructive feedback to your peers.

3. Motivate others. Encourage others to pursue their passions too. Provide the employees you manage with opportunities to learn and grow. Empower them with meaningful work. In other words, be an influential leader.
4. Serve as a brand ambassador. Your behavior reflects on your company as you deal with clients or the general public. Ensure you understand the mission statement so you can put those values into action.
5. Take risks. You can act like an entrepreneur even if someone else owns the company. Take sensible risks that will allow you to stretch your skills and enhance your company’s position. Start off small and learn from experience so you can fine tune your judgement over time.

Demonstrating your potential to your boss will help you gain recognition and promotions. You will find a mentor and champion as you aim for the higher rungs of the corporate ladder.

Position yourself for success by strengthening your performance at the early stages of your career.

Later, you can count on your business savvy and close relationships to help you excel as a leader.

Who doesn’t want to achieve a successful career?

You know, the one where you’re acknowledged for your work and sent on leadership development programs?

The salary increments and annual bonuses justifying working those 80-hour work weeks, loss of work life balance worth it because you are a success.

It’s another thing that after a point, the Law of Diminishing Returns sets in.

The monetary compensation, business class travel and staying in plush 5-star hotels is not attractive enough because the rest of your life is in complete shambles.

Your boss dangles the carrot of a fast track to a top leadership role but you the work horse don’t want a juicy bite or worse start wondering about your next step.

So, am I telling you to drop it all? Not in the least.

What I am telling you is to go after what would really define career success for you and not what is the cultural norm in the corporate world. Use the power of visualization to make it happen.

Manifesting that dream job or career requires a new way of thinking

Before you think I’m going to tell you to chant mantras and affirmations to manifest that dream job or career, the one where all your criterion of a happy work life balance appear overnight, let’s pause to think about it.

Manifestation is somewhat of a buzzword in society today.

Everyone seems to be talking about it, writing about it, practicing it, or trying to implement, but what is it?

It’s the idea that what you put out into the universe, whether actions, words, or energy, will come back to you eventually.

A good example is provided by Katherine Hurst in her book The Secret Law of Attraction where she looks at applying for jobs but never being called in for interviews. She asks the reader to consider their mindset around the time this event was happening.

Did the reader believe they could achieve their goal?

Even if they believed it, was there an underlying sense of fear? Or even a stronger, more forceful voice in their head saying that disaster was going to strike?

When we want something, our limiting beliefs come out of the woodwork to produce frightening thoughts and images representing our failure. The resulting negativity only attracts more negativity; this is the Law of Attraction working in precisely the way you don’t want it to work.

In order to be on the receiving end of good things we need to be thinking and doing good things.

So how does manifestation benefit us and how do we incorporate it into our lives, especially when it comes to one’s career?

Here’s the big reveal.

Manifestation is already at work in our lives, but most of us are unaware of this fact. Thus, many of us are manifesting negative things and outcomes simply because our thoughts and actions are more negative than positive.

For manifestation to work more in our favor we have to be intentional about changing our thoughts and subsequently aligning our actions so that we can begin to manifest good in our lives.

Back in time when I was studying for my Chartered Accountancy qualification in London, I discovered a book by Kaz, a British psychic that talked of magic and many other interesting topics around divination and fortune telling.

It belonged to a friend who had bought it in a book shop sale for 50 pence but didn’t like it too much so when she saw my curiosity, she gifted it to me on the spot. The book is now out of print.

I still remember the opening pages – the book will find its way to the right reader.

There was a small chapter on manifestation with an exercise that is similar to the one I am going to share below.

At the time, I was about to take the first level examinations which were very competitive and of course as a young student I was nervous. Passing the exams would take me one step closer to realizing a dream I had since my school days.

I was burning the midnight oil, doing well in the training center tests but needed that extra bit of magic – the mindset that I could achieve anything I put my heart to.

Knowing I was putting in the work, I thought, why not give a shot to the simple exercise?

So every morning I would look at myself in the mirror and greet the person who had passed the exams with awesome marks. I’d do it every time I passed the mirror and do the complete exercise right up to the day the results were published.

Guess what?

I had clear passes in all my papers and had cleared Level One!

Okay, now for the exercise!

Visualize

The first step of manifestation is visualizing what you want for yourself. Whether it’s good health, success, or love, you have to first get clear about what you want. Then you can begin visualizing what your life would be like with that thing in it.

Visualization moves you from simply desiring something to actively assessing how having that thing will impact your life. Many people use vision boards as a tangible way to practice this concept.

By consistently seeing the things you want in life and the impact those things will have on your life, you increase your level of expectation.

Believe

Once you have a vision of what you want and how your life would improve as a result, you have to believe that it can happen. It’s one thing to want something, it’s another thing to fully expect that something can come into your life (Bernstein, G. 2016, December 13, The Five Principles For Manifesting Your Desires).

More than that, one should consider moving from a thought process that believes it can happen, into a thought process that believes it will in fact happen for you. It is with this confidence that you can then attract those things you desire.

Operate

A final key to manifesting the things you want in life is to operate as though those things have/will happen. You might be able to visualize and believe, but it can be a challenge for people to operate as though the thing they want will actually happen.

More often than not, people do visualize and believe, yet they still make decisions that demonstrate they have doubt. Operating as though the thing has happened or will happen demonstrates a level of confidence that is more likely to attract what you want in your life.

Through the principles of manifestation you can attract a host of positives for the mind, body, and spirit.

Active practice of manifestation can be linked to improved mental & physical health, positive friend & romantic relationships, and even success & financial prosperity.

You can read about the exact steps I take in my blog post How to benefit from Creative Visualization when you need to resolve a crisis.

Because manifestation is primarily about shifting of the mindset and aligning of actions and behaviors to match that more positive mindset, there is truly no limit to what you can manifest.

Develop a practical way to incorporate manifestation in your daily life and see what good comes unto you.

Now that we’ve covered the mindset part with an exercise that is really worth trying out, let’s look for some more practical methods to apply visualization.

Keeping Your Eyes Open for Opportunities

In my exam result story and the one I share in my Creative Visualization post, there is a slight difference.

In one case, I got exactly what I wanted while in the other, I got even more than I had wanted which was good of course.

When we need to attract something into our life using the visualization process, what we desire, or need might not come in the ways that we expect.

Unfortunately, visualization isn’t always as straight-forward as it can seem. We will never just wake up one day to find what we want is there in the manner we want it.

The way that visualization works is through the law of attraction; which allows the things we need in order to realize our goals to reach us.

Mantras and affirmations are good practices to support our visualization efforts but we still need to be active and may need to keep our eyes open for opportunities.

If you want to be more visible in the workplace and get juicy assignments, it’s not going to come out of nowhere.

We still need to look out for the opportunities that are presented to us in our lives to help us to create the situations that we most desire.

Some of these situations are going to take some action. If we are not proactive then we may miss the chance that the universe has sent us to seize the thing we have been visualizing. We will miss out on all of it.

There are a few very important things to keep in mind when using visualization to achieve your goals.

First of all, are you doing everything in your power to make sure that you will see an opportunity when it comes to you?

Are you talking to the people who will support your vision for yourself, or are you staying stuck in toxic relationships that will not help you achieve your goals?

Getting to know colleagues in different departments keeps you in the loop of developments within your organization. You never know who might know of an opening which is a match for your skills or where you would perform better.

If the company intranet advertises positions within the company, you are perfectly placed to apply and even be considered.

Another thing to consider is whether or not you are open to new opportunities.

If you tell yourself that everything in your life is stuck and will never change, you are already challenging the visualization process.

If you partly believe that things can’t change and then an opportunity comes knocking, you might not even notice that it is a new opportunity for you that could help you get to the place where you want to be! Don’t let that happen to you.

Overall, make sure that you keep your mind open to the possibilities that are surrounding you.

It can be difficult to look away from your routine and see things that may be opening up to you that never have before. The most important thing you can do for yourself is to remember that your visualization practices will come back to you in ways you may not expect. So stay alert!

Visualization works. But it is up to us to do the work that needs to be done to get there.

Remember, we alone are the masters of our destiny. It is our choice whether or not we seize a new opportunity that can change our lives or let it pass us by.

Evaluating the Tools in Place to Ensure Your Success

The road to success is never linear and definitely not your career path. As you reach each level of progression, there will be new challenges, new duties, new responsibilities and the need to acquire new skills.

So being good at your job as an Executive in your team and sound technical skills will definitely get you noticed. But if you’re eyeing a Team Leader role or becoming a Manager, you need to upgrade your people and other soft skills to manage rather than execute the work.

You also need to identify your unique strengths and skills that set you apart from the rest of your competitors.

In the bigger scheme of things, everything you want in life has a pathway to get there. Everyone has the potential to go after what it is they want the most and to become the embodiment of success that they visualize.

The trick to this is to make sure that you are staying true to yourself and allowing the law of attraction to come to you and allow you to reap its blessings.

But you must never become complacent. Nobody who wants something remarkable is going to accomplish it by sitting at home all day long waiting for a miracle to occur.

Visualization works, but only if you are taking the steps you need to take in order to allow it to work and manifest in your life.

That means keeping an eye open for all of the things that you already have at your disposal to help you to achieve your goals.

Many of us overlook the resources that we have in our lives already that can help us succeed. We may not think about how our own work ethic may come into play, or think much about how the people we know may help us to network and make our way up the ladder.

But these are things that are important for us to think about if we are going to manifest the greatest solution to our problems and rise above the life we found ourselves handed.

To carve our destinies, we need to keep an open mind and keep a sharp eye out for the tools and opportunities that are present around us.

Visualization helps us to train our brains to spot these opportunities so that we know what we should pursue in order to make our goals into a reality.

If we aren’t actively seeking out the things in our lives that we already have access to that can help us to move along our paths, then we are becoming complacent in our realities. Basically, telling ourselves, and the universe at large, that we are content with staying where we are. And so that’s exactly what we do.

But we don’t have to stay stuck. Stop and really think about the things in your life that can help you to gain more opportunities.

Do you have internet access?

Can you seek out free resources that will help you to do your work better or more efficiently?

Do you know of family or friends in a field where you could somehow connect with them and get your feet off the ground to start a new aspect of your project?

What do you already know, and what are you good at? How can you begin to use these skills to your advantage?

There is nothing wrong with asking for help sometimes, and it is important for us to see where we can make connections to get the ball rolling. Nobody is powerless, so open your eyes to the tools at your disposal today!

Final words to give you that extra little boost to go for career success

Visualization is a powerful tool to help you achieve career progression provided it is used properly. You must not go down the complacency route.

In a nutshell, here’s how I would approach it

1. Write down a list of your skills and abilities. Research those jobs and positions where these skills would be useful but also narrow down your choices to those which you would enjoy most. This will help make your visualization practice more effective.
2. Imagine already having that promotion or dream job using the technique I outline above. Bring all your 5 senses into the visualization using the steps in my blog post on Creative Visualization. This will make your brain think the scenario is real. When you start to falter, think about the bigger why behind your goal and the difference it will make to your life.
3. Act as if you have that desired promotion or dream job. The change in body language and thoughts will help attract your desired outcome.
4. Keep up the positive reinforcement with sticky notes that affirm you have it or create a Vision Board to remind you what you want to achieve.
5. Take actual steps toward obtaining your dream position or job. For example, if you know you want to reach the next level of your department chart, check if there is a lack of skills required and fill that deficiency. Ask your Manager to send you on the relevant courses or invest in improving your skills yourself. Attend seminars related to your field to meet managers and business owners who can hire you. Network with professionals who can show you how to get the position you’re after.

The world really is your oyster but you have to put in the work to get it. Are you ready?

Is it a good time to set up the business you’ve been thinking of but never got the time (or found the time) to really work out the details and more importantly launch it?

With many businesses laying off employees thanks to the economic downturn caused by COVID-19, now might actually be the right time for you to explore the option of becoming your own boss and starting your business, consulting or even freelancing service.

I was reading an interesting article in FastCompany by startup founder Brian Metcalfe who stated there is never a right time to start a business and what was more important is whether the business in solving pain points relevant to today.

The article reminded me of my own journey into independent Financial Consulting and later Executive Coaching.

Neither happened overnight and I had to ask some hard questions upfront as well as do some legwork to come up with the right business plan.

Back in 1998, I set up my first consultancy and landed my first client within 3 weeks.

The background behind the consultancy was a deeply personal one. My Big Why was more of proving to myself that I was highly employable and capable of being my own employer.

I had been offered a job with a Big Four Firm in India but 3 weeks before leaving Tunisia where I was working for the Tunisian partner firm, the offer was taken back.

This firm was merging with another global Big Four firm and they were undergoing a restructuring where new hires were stopped, offers rescinded and excess staff was being laid off.

There wasn’t much to be done long distance so I took it on the chin deciding I’d get a job after reaching Delhi. That was far from easy.

I got interviews but somehow it wasn’t working out. I was over-qualified for the jobs and a couple of times the interviewer was curious to see me based on my resume and professional achievements.

It was the era of outsourcing global accounting work and there were jobs available in that area but my profile was not a good match. I could not see myself handling overseas company bookkeeping when I had already been the Finance Director of a New York Listed Company.

Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter anymore.

What does matter is I got angry enough to take decisive action of setting up shop and finding paying clients who would value what I was bringing to the table.

I wanted to take back control of my career path and not leave my career to the whims and fancies of interviewers who wasted my time and perhaps their own too. I was not handing out permission slips to knock my self-confidence or question my worth.

My overarching logic?

I had an apartment that could have an office in one of the bedrooms, a car, mobile phone and a computer with internet connection.

I could do certain assignments that didn’t require a bandwidth at a competitive cost and still make a profit because I had worked out all the details in my business plan including partnerships with other accounting firms if I needed staff.

From a tax point of view, I’d have more cash after business expenses than as a salaried employee. That was good, right?

As a senior finance professional who had done marketing at a higher level, I could prepare pitch books and present myself as a good option.

AND I believed in myself. I had the right mindset.

Since then, I’ve found more instances of professionals launching new businesses during the pandemic. 

By chance I got my first lead within a month at a cocktail party while chatting with one of the guests who felt I was ideal for a project in Nepal.

A friend of theirs, the owner of an adventure travel group of companies was looking for someone with my credentials to do a project to find where the group’s money was disappearing.

He wasn’t interested in hiring a Big 4 firm for the assignment and wanted someone who would report directly to the Chief Executive Officer. The assignment was supposed to be low profile.

Within a week I was on a plane to Nepal and spent months at their lodges in the forest and then at headquarters.

My discovery led to the uncovering of a serious fraud and I also managed to save the jobs of at least 800 employees since the company was heading for bankruptcy.

After that, I spent time in Head Office restructuring and reorganizing their systems and plugging the gaps that had led to the original problem.

My next client was an international company in the energy sector and I had been the Audit Manager for their group company in Tunisia.

This was before the Enron fiasco and my assignment again was setting up systems for an important project as a consultant.

I did a great job – so great that they offered me a permanent job as Finance Manager and thus ended my first foray into independent consultancy and back to being a salaried employee.

I took up that dream again in 2008 and got clients and then after 3 years launched Karmic Ally Coaching in a completely different niche and service area with a stronger motivation and Big Why and that’s how you’ve found me.

One common factor during both times I went into my consulting self-employment business was the economic conditions were recessionary.

Even better is the fact that both times the business I ran was profitable.

With some smart and creative thinking, you can have your business launched in no time. If you have a clear plan, you can make this happen regardless of the state of the economy.

With experience comes knowledge and I’ve compiled it in 5 important things you need to think about before jumping into business.

5 Ways You benefit from starting your Business now

If you’re thinking recession is the worst possible time to start a business, please note this certainly isn’t the case! What is important is to take advantage of some key factors like I did.

These tips can help you take advantage of the recession to get your business off to a great start:

Your initial investment outlay and running costs are lower. It’s less expensive to start a business during a recession than at other times. This is because other businesses are offering deals left and right.

You might be able to get lower advertising rates as well as deals on supplies, inventory, services, and more.

If you plan things properly, you might be able to reduce your original capital outlay.

Remember I started my first business from a bedroom converted into a home office and used my computer laptop and mobile phone.

Somewhere my sub-conscious mind reminded me of the beginnings of Apple and Microsoft and even the beginnings of Infosys which was quite humble!

Provide excellent customer service. Excellent customer service matters. Between two businesses, with all things equal, the company with the better customer service always wins. After all, people always desire to be treated well.

In a recession, it’s possible that your competition has cut back on their customer service efforts. This gives you the opportunity to come in with top-notch service.

Make irresistible offers. In a recession, people are more likely to pay serious attention to the businesses that are giving greater offers. You can open your new business with a bang by beating out your competitors with an excellent deal.

If you maintain reasonable overheads, you could create an offer that keeps your margins healthy, cash flows good and provides an excellent offer to the customer.

Excellent employees or outsource services that you don’t need full-time. During a time of recession, you may find some excellent candidates when it comes time to do your hiring.

Because of other companies’ downsizing, you can snatch up some appreciative and loyal people that are knowledgeable and well qualified.

If the business doesn’t require full-time employees then consider outsourcing services you require to run your business.

Some of these services include book-keeping, website maintenance, tax filing. When the time is right for expanding your manpower, you will do it.

Getting a lead in the launch game. When you start your business during a recession, you’ll get a good head start over other businesses that may be waiting for a “better” time to launch. This means that by the time they do launch, you’ll be that much further ahead of the game.

Be economical and cautious with expenditure. Starting in times of recession forces you to be frugal about your business activities.

Because of the recession, you’ll make it a point to search for the best prices and the most efficient ways of conducting business.

You may do it this way simply because you have to, but in the long run, you’ll learn a very important lesson that can enable you to run a profitable business for years to come.

Instead of waiting for the “right” time, take action today.

That’s how I did it for both my finance consulting business and then when I launched my coaching business.

Luckily both times I had skills and credentials as well as references to land prestigious assignments even though I was a 1 woman show that got me into momentum and I knew what steps were required at each stage.

I’ve seen too many professionals quit cushy jobs and go into business and then return to jobs because they didn’t have a plan or had not thought through things clearly.

Mind you, there isn’t any shame in having failed in your start up and many times firms want such professionals because of the wealth of unique experience they bring with them. It deserves to be mentioned in your Curriculum Vitae.

It’s when your heart is truly set on doing your own thing that you have to prepare properly for success.

Mistakes are made which can prove disastrous for a new business. The first one is not checking if you are cut out for business.

That’s why when I have professionals ask me about leaving corporate jobs and starting their own businesses, I ask them all the uncomfortable questions upfront.

My advice is to always have the ducks in a row before jumping into business.

Instead of surfing the internet looking for information (which is a good idea by the way), why not focus on yourself instead and gather information in a methodical manner?

I’m asking you to do your homework first and take deliberate action to achieve your dream.

Additional Resource for professionals who are ready to play their A Game in business

If COVID-19 job loss or change of perspective has made you consider going into business, self-employment or freelancing, you want this Business Planning Bundle. It includes a workbook that asks all the important questions and some cool bonus resources that will give you a jumpstart to achieve your dream.

In this workbook, you will begin to think more about your plan and consider 5 tough areas so that you transition from employee to business person with clarity and focus and understand what you next step should be to Project Independent Business.

That in itself is worth investing in.

And it’s not just the workbook. I’m giving you additional support with these bonuses that will make all the difference in helping you decide on your course of action and prepare for your new avatar.

Curious?

Get all the details on my Business Planning Bundle here.

It’s a fact the world we knew has changed in 2020 and if you’re feeling there isn’t any point in setting career or any kind of goal in an upside down world, I understand.

Many companies have had to lay off staff to survive lockdown conditions or to stay in business while others have deferred promotions, pay increments and bonuses.

If you, dear reader have been affected by these business decisions, I feel your pain.

I’ve experienced redundancies during economic downswings and jobs that were secure vanished overnight and so have many of my colleagues and friends.

But that doesn’t mean that all is lost.

The job market is starting to pick up albeit slowly and if you have what the hiring manager is looking for, then enjoy the interviews and signing your new job contract!

Companies may introduce new criterion for promotions and salaries and that is natural in a new business environment.

You can still make this a good year for your career if you apply strategic thinking.

You need to figure out how to showcase yourself to rise above the noise and become visible enough to achieve your career or business goals.

Before your eyes glaze over and you think strategic thinking is a vague buzzword CEOs or bosses toss around to sound important, please read on because I’m going to show you how Madonna did it and how you can too for career success!

Actually, Strategic Thinking is a skill we can all learn. It is how we plan, think, and ask questions to grow and learn while we work toward a goal.

It’s embracing what you were like when you were a young child and asking questions, most importantly, “why?”

Thinking strategically is based on a combination of knowledge, experiences, and your hunches. It’s about taking calculated and un-calculated risks that we hope will pay off in the future.

It’s about shifting your focus from just doing things to thinking and planning what should be getting done and if there is another way to achieve the results we want.

Strategic thinkers are creative individuals who think outside the box, not limiting themselves to the tried and true or best practice way of doing things.

On the other hand, non-strategic thinkers approach every task the same way, no matter if changing their strategy would yield better results. They are reactive and wait for guidance, rarely presenting new ideas.

For example, if you’re focusing on the same skill sets that others are in a job application you are just part of the crowd.

Why not look for something that makes you so special (provided it is true) to put in your CV and covering letter that compels the hiring manager to want to interview you?

It’s this approach that I share in Job Search Success and the same strategy applies even within an organization when you are vying for that promotion and trying to raise your Executive Presence.

It’s all about discovering your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and knowing how to use it to your advantage.

The Career and Success Story of Madonna Ciccone

Believe it or not but I’ve seen Madonna’s career actually being used as a case study to analyse the role of strategy in career success within a fast-paced business environment!

In fact strategy exists for both individuals and organizations and this is a prime example.

If you were a teenager or young adult in the 1980s, you’d remember how Madonna seemed to have arrived out of nowhere and then made an impact with her first album in 1983.

It was a normal sight to see young girls wearing half finger lace gloves and bangle type earrings. Such was her impact on young teenagers.

More importantly, that first album was the successful result of a superb strategy.

In fact, long before Beyoncé and Lady Gaga, Madonna prove she was an astute strategist in the world of entertainment where the competition to survive is tough.

Madonna articulated her core mission, established her objectives, adopted a relentless strategic intent, and recognized that she could carve out uncontested market space by developing a USP and personal brand unlike anyone else’s.

As career professionals, freelancers, consultants and solopreneurs, the key lesson is to develop a competitive advantage that differentiates us from others in our field and stand out above the noise.

Normally when we think of competitive advantage, we assume that we’re doing the same thing as everyone else but better and become slaves to benchmarks, best practices and end up mimicking our competitors.

That’s not what Madonna did to achieve success.

She continues to reinvent herself and stay relevant. Many of her fans, including me, have followed her from where she started and continue to purchase her music.

She discovered her USP that helped her stand out from the crowd and created brand Madonna.

Now as professionals, we have 2 ways to decide on our USP.

You can either choose a generic strategy or build on it by deciding how you will do things differently or you can find your really unique quality and create a USP that leaves your competitors behind.

Madonna chose the latter and discovered what is called her Blue Ocean.

Blue Ocean strategy means thinking unconventionally, and most times, we have to force ourselves to change our thinking habits.

It’s helpful to train ourselves to look at situations not with our habitual perspective but with a keen eye for the hidden opportunities in the situation.

“Blue Ocean” is a strategic term that first appeared in a book called Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne and refers to uncontested market space carved out by shrewd competitors.

Kim and Mauborgne showed that most companies are driven to compete in what they call “Red Oceans.”

That’s where every industry is today. There is a defined market, defined competitor and a typical way to run a business in any specific industry.

The analogy used was one of a shark infested ocean where the sharks are fighting each other for the same prey.

That means operating at lower margins, reducing head count, tight budgets, lots of stress and companies going belly up when a recession or pandemic hits them.

The alternative is to carve out uncontested market space, differentiate yourself, your product, or your firm in some way meaningful to your target market.

That is, to find your Blue Ocean.

While the book talks about organizations, we can use the concept even at an individual professional level.

How to create your own blue ocean for career progression

In the book, Kim and Mauborgne talk about the Four Actions Framework as a method to get you thinking in fresh ways about what you do each day.

Instead of the conventional competitive model where we compete across a full range of factors, they suggest the blue ocean approach where we ask basic questions with the intention of creating new competitive factors that would appeal to unexplored market segments.

The Four Actions Framework consists of 4 questions designed to challenge an industry’s established structure and business logic:

(1) Which of the factors that the industry takes for granted should be eliminated?

(2) Which factors should be reduced well below the industry’s standard?

(3) Which factors should be raised well above the industry’s standard?

(4) Which factors should be created that the industry has never offered?

Another simpler way of looking at these questions is to think of them as 4 steps – Eliminate, Reduce, Raise and Create with the related activities enabling you to create a new value.

Let’s translate this to your career goals and intentions to stand out.

Eliminate: We identify the key factors you are competing on but which are not really adding value to where you want to be in your career.

Here we are not saying to abandon those factors but to remove them from the equation while we work out our blue ocean.

So skills and experiences are still valuable but we are looking for THAT secret sauce that makes you valuable.

Reduce: Next consider which factors you should focus less energy on so you have time for the factors that really make an impact.

Raise: Now that we have removed the factors that are common to your competition and which are not adding value to your professional profile, focus on what factors, skills, or added value you can work on to be the very best and stand apart.

This won’t be the same for every professional but in your case it might just be networking skills, executive presence, high emotional intelligence, people skills or something you do even better than your peers which has value in the next step of the career rung for you.

Now comes the really strategic thinking part.

Create: What can you bring to the table that is different? What do you possess that your peers don’t?

Speaking from experience, in one of my jobs, I received the offer over other competing candidates because of my multi-cultural experience which fitted in to an organization where the parent company and regional headquarters were located in 2 different countries with different methods of working to the local company and the need to adjust when dealing with colleagues in both without conflict.

My predecessor had quit because he found the others in those countries difficult to deal with. Actually the feeling had been mutual.

In other words, how are you going to find your USP that will enable you to break away from your competition?

PS. Once you’ve discovered your Blue Ocean, follow the tips in this blog post to let the world know how unique you really are!

Do you believe self-promotion in the workplace is for braggarts and good work speaks for itself?

This isn’t a trick question because that belief won’t take your career places. That’s what this professional who delivered 100% of the time realized at a crucial point of her career track.

To be honest with you, I felt bad for her. Really bad because I knew what had happened. There wasn’t much we could do about it other than consider a new option that would give her the validation she sought.

This competent high achieving professional was paying a high price for not doing enough self-promotion.

The background story was a particular position promised to her 2 years down the line if she met the goals her manager had set for her. The Key Performance Indices were challenging but achievable.

The lady was not only on target but had achieved more in year 1. But sometime in the course of year 2, there was a change of plan.

Her manager apologetically informed her the prize position at the end of the year was going to a relatively new employee. He hadn’t yet earned his stars but the top boss was impressed with him. Nothing could be done about it.

This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this.

A few years back one of my coaching clients asked for a session purely focused on this topic. Again, it was about colleagues who made complete fools of themselves in meetings without having complete data or facts. Yet they seemed to shine while she stayed in the background.

What neither realized was that their colleagues knew how to get others to notice them and stand out.

It’s something Bonnie Marcus discusses at the very beginning of her book The Politics of Promotion.

In fact, those competitive colleagues were demonstrating Executive Presence. Get your copy of this checklist by clicking the below image.

Nobody likes a person who boasts, brags or shows off. Especially when its done to make other people feel lacking or less competent.

In fact, the Oxford Dictionary definition of self-promotion is “the action of promoting or publicizing oneself or one’s activities, especially in a forceful way”.

But I have a question for you.

What does it cost you if you claim credit for something you have achieved?

Nothing at all, and it can actually open up opportunities. However, many of us are afraid to take credit for our successes as it feels uncomfortable. We may feel we will be seen as bragging or tooting our own horn.

These feelings can be related to our feelings of self-worth, but other aspects can have an effect too.

How we were raised and the expectations put on us in our formative years can greatly influence our relationship with ‘going public.’

Many families, societies, and cultures express disapproval with outward expression that is considered healthy or even admirable in others.

Self-Promotion is an art worth mastering for the sake of your career

 A person who is good at self-promotion enjoys taking credit for his or her valid accomplishments. Self-promotion is an art. It is an effective leadership skill.

Self-promotion can be learned, which is great news for those who are not comfortable with it. It is a skill that can be greatly improved with practice and application.

Self-promotion is not showing off. Speaking up about accomplishments made and contributions you can deliver does not mean you are egocentric or self-absorbing.

It means being noticed by the right people for the right reasons and in the right manner.

Think about it. When you state your accomplishments in your Resume or on your LinkedIn Profile, you’re promoting yourself and letting others know about your strengths and capabilities.

If it feels alright there, then why not in the workplace?

5 Signs you are bad at Self-Promotion

I’ve already told you about 2 professionals who were poor in promoting themselves. Now let’s check if this is you?

You work hard, you go the extra mile and deliver beyond others expectations. However, you do not take credit for your success. Instead, you allow others (especially with seniority or longer tenure at work) to be recognized.

You do not use ‘I’ but ‘we.’ You share the credit for your own diligent effort among your peers, groups, teams, and other people, which does not necessarily help you, particularly when it comes to your career. This makes you feel good at the time, but you may regret doing so later and wish you had been able to confidently claim the achievement as your own.

You tell yourself that great work sells itself, so there is no need for showing off your outstanding performance.

You hope that the right people will notice your achievements. After all, it was you who did all the hard work.

Sorry to burst your bubble but it doesn’t work that way. As my mentor told me a long time back, you have to step up to the plate if you want your career to go places.

When someone compliments you for your achievements, you feel that you are just lucky and thank the universe for making it happen, rather than thanking yourself for your efforts and skills.

Here’s a truth bomb. Self-deprecation may be charming but it wont help you get that promotion or climb the corporate ladder.

Instead, Self-promotion in our context is the art of advocating for yourself.

It’s important to your career’s success because you get a chance to set yourself apart, showcase your importance to the team, get deserved recognition, and set yourself up for advancements and opportunities.

It’s a leadership skill that should not be taken lightly. It’s also a skill that will enable you to raise your Executive Presence in the workplace.

How to Promote Yourself the Right Way

Now that you know where you might be going wrong, how about doing the right things without feeling like a slimy braggart?

Self-promotion is one of the strongest skills found in successful individuals. Being able to self-promote has many advantages. It is vital to personal advancement, and if done well can place you in top positions within your workplace.

Here are some ways to more effectively promote yourself without being self-obsessed.

• Self-awareness is important to successful self-promotion. It is about knowing your attitudes, values, behavior, beliefs, feelings, and other personality factors. Take some time for self-reflection to understand why you think and act as you do. Question any beliefs or behaviors that are not supporting the actions you know you need to take. If you are self-aware, you can promote in an intellectual manner.

(Need help in developing your self-awareness? You want to check out this resource)

• We all have stories to tell, so if you tell them, make sure they are interesting and provide value. Ensure that your stories are appropriate to the achievement. Don’t embellish, but don’t be self-deprecating either. In fact, use your stories to demonstrate your point of view – all leaders know the art of storytelling.

• Deliver, and don’t make empty promises. Do what you say you will. You deserve merit if any achievement is truly yours to claim. Focus on ‘showing’ what you have done, rather than ‘telling’ what you will do. At work, it is easier to lead your team if your members see you fulfilling your responsibilities. Walk the talk so you can self-promote unashamedly.

• Show genuine appreciation and recognition if your efforts are not yours alone. There may have been individuals who contributed along the way. By showing genuine appreciation and gratitude to others, you will make them feel valuable too. It also demonstrates you’re a positive person who is self-assured and not afraid to acknowledge others for their work.

• Work on becoming an industry or subject matter expert. Use social media to demonstrate your knowledge, perspectives and point of view. This could be articles you’ve written or even curated content with a note on your observations. Comment with insights on posts related to your area of expertise and soon you will be noticed without having to worry about boastful. I promise you your efforts will be noticed both within social media but even your organization.

You can find more methods to achieve this goal in Get Noticed.

Self-promotion is not always easy, especially in the workplace, which is why it can feel uncomfortable to do until an event happens that compels them to understand the need for speaking about their contributions to the organization.

However, when done the right way, there are many advantages and can be life-changing. Effective self-promotion has helped many individuals unlock their true potential, overcome their weaknesses, and stand out from the crowd.

Isn’t it time you began promoting your achievements, the way they deserve to be celebrated?

The decision to change careers is easy but doing it successfully is where the rubber hits the road.

While it’s never too late to try a new career on for size, changing careers can be a significant challenge.

Are you ready for the career change?

A lot depends on your career of choice and whether you’ve done your homework on the 3 factors you need to consider and work out before embarking on a new career.

More often than not, the desire to change your vocation has more to do with filling a void between what you’re doing and what would fulfill you rather than having taken a wrong career decision in the early stages of your joining the workforce.

If you’re committed to make the transition in vocation work, there’s no reason you can’t find a new line of work that fulfills you and pays the bills.

But you have to take action and work towards the career change goal.

You will be embarking on a new adventure and need to be prepared not only for the wins but more importantly the misses and setbacks that may happen along the way.

Don’t brood over them for too long. Consider them a learning experience and move forward.

You owe it to yourself to make the best decisions and choices and make the change a fulfilling one.

7 Tasks You Need To Focus On Before A Career Shift

Years ago when I decided I wanted to change my career from a finance professional to an Executive Coach, I realized the shift was not going to be an overnight one but which required some serious thought and planning.

I identified 3 key areas with 7 activities that prove useful in making a career change and doing the work one was meant to do.

Focus on what drives you

The decision to change a career is your decision and you will need to take responsibility for your decision. What’s driving you?

Here’s we’re not talking about hating your job or the boss who drives you up the wall. We’re focusing on you.

Here’s how I would approach it.

1. Make a list of what you don’t like about your current position. If you’re considering a change, there must be something that’s rubbing you the wrong way. It might be your company, the people, or your position. Maybe you just weren’t cut out to be an automobile engineer, software developer or tax accountant. You have the skills and aptitude but it doesn’t make your heart sing or you’re no longer motivated. Consider the things you don’t want to see in your next career.
2. Make a list of what you do like about your current position. Nothing is ever black and white. There are shades of grey and your current position can’t be all that awful! What are things about your current company and position that you enjoy? What would you like to see in your next position?
3. Consider your values. Taking up a job for the great pay is good but there might be a conflict with your values. Perhaps your core value is helping people, but you spend your days as a debt collection agent. A position helping others directly might be more to your liking. List your values and consider careers that dovetail with them.

Need more help in this critical section? You want my free Tip Sheet on Changing Careers After 40.

Manifest your desire with a Road Map

Now that you know what makes you tick, it’s time to do some more research. I’ve covered some of these points in greater detail in this post.

4. Brainstorm a list of career possibilities that take into account your likes, dislikes, and values. Now that you’ve given some thought to what you like, don’t like, and your values, think of careers that can satisfy all of those requirements.
5. What else do you need? If you’re planning a significant change, you’ll probably need to learn a few new skills. You might even need to go back to school. Consider what you need to add to your resume and make a plan to make it happen.
6. Set a goal. Know what you want and put your vision to paper. Read your goal each day. Develop a reasonable plan to reach your goal in the near future. Create a goal that inspires you.
7. Tap into your network to learn more about your dream job and what may be required of you. Let everyone know you’re looking to make a change. Be careful not to burn any bridges at your current job until you’re ready to move on. This includes talking to headhunters who will be able to advise you on what companies are looking for right now.

Stay grounded in reality

I don’t want to burst your bubble but you do need to be realistic. Just because you’ve taken a decision doesn’t mean that things will miraculously fall into place.

Be prepared to take a demotion or a pay cut in order to change careers.

I remember working for a Big 4 firm that would hire staff at one level less than their actual qualification and experience if they came from any firm other than a Big 4 and even though the professional was competent, that was the price they had to pay to join the elite firm.

Sometimes, it’s necessary to take a small step back to eventually take a greater step forward.

You’ll also have to exercise patience. Finding a new position within your own field is usually challenging especially as your seniority increases or if the market is on the downturn.

Finding a new position in a new field is considerably more difficult. You must be patient and persistent. Expect that it will take some time, but keep working hard toward realizing your dream.

But it can be done. Take the time to make a wise decision and then put a plan in place.

And if you need more inspiration, read my blog post Second Inning Career Success Secrets – these ladies did it.

There is nothing more inspiring than seeing real people complete their career change journey and reach their destination successfully.

I believe humans can learn a lot if they only invested some time observing the interactions of other species of the animal kingdom.

If there’s a dog at home, then you have an in-house Guru who can show you some tricks that will benefit your career and even your relationships.

I’m not talking about chasing your tail (or even an imaginary one), barking at everyone or digging holes and hoarding prized possessions, which guarantee being stuck in a rut but more concrete activities.

I’ve seen these furry-faced companions interact both as pack animals when we had 5 miniature brown dachshunds as well as my current canine pal, Miss Coco in action.

That’s when I discovered how authentic leaders are chosen not on the basis of seniority or authority but because the dog is able to ascertain who is the strongest, wisest and worthy of being the leader.

They literally look at the options in front of them and evaluate them based on different qualities and dare I say actually apply the concept of 5 Power Bases of Leadership.

Dogs are pack animals and choose their own Leader

I discovered that when I was stuck in bed with a broken leg and had all the time in the world to observe what the family lovingly called The Dachshund Five.

I saw how Goldie became the leader. By chance she was also the eldest. If she barked and ran in a direction, the other 4 followed in a line.

If there was a squabble between any of them, Goldie would actually go and intervene.

She was a genuine leader who led by example and even a role model for the other 4 members of her family.

When the cast came off my leg and I was learning to balance myself without a crutch, I had 5 little ones follow me ready to break my fall even if I broke their backs by falling on them.

Fortunately dogs consider humans to be superior so we don’t become members of the pack but can become leaders – provided we demonstrate our worth. In fact, dogs are known to assess the humans in the house and select one.

It seems I was the Chosen One and my parents would tell me about how Goldie ruled the home during the day and then retire once I got back from work.

I can only hope I lived up to the expectations of my beloved pets, especially Goldie.

Dogs really have high Emotional Intelligence

Even if you indulged me while I reminisced over The Dachshund Five, my assertion of canines having high EI or EQ is not baseless.

There’s an entire page in Wikipedia on Dog Intelligence. Studies have proven that just as humans experience a reduction in stress and anxiety levels by patting a dog for 15 minutes, when humans pet shelter dogs for 15 minutes or more, the dog becomes less anxious.

Our furry friends experience feelings of jealousy and studies have shown that a pet will try to solve the problem and get their pet parent’s attention back on them!

These wise animals are socially aware and can tell the difference in our emotional expressions of sad and happy human faces.

I know this for a fact as I shared my story with Bruno in my post Even Today, the Spirit of Yudhishthira’s Dog Lives On, where I recount how a small puppy kept me going as I faced my first redundancy in the post-Gulf War period.

If ever I saw the quality of empathy on display, this was it!

Miss Coco, the current Pup in Command in my home demonstrates empathy to outsiders too when we are on our walks and can teach my coaching clients a trick or two about networking!

That cute face with a wag-filled tail has made us the first friends any new resident makes when they come to live in our complex and more people remember her birthday and inquire about her if I am ever downstairs alone!

When I introduce fellow residents in the complex to each other, I actually add ‘X is also a friend of Miss Coco’s’ and suddenly both people seem to be more open to knowing each other!

Apparently they’ve passed the Know, Like and Trust criterion set by my dog!

Apply Dog Wisdom to positively impact your Career Prospect Now

Before you think only my canine companions have all the intelligence in the world, let me point out that every dog parent I’ve ever known has similar stories about their beloved furry family member.

That’s why I’m dedicating this post to the Canine Community and their Human Honorary Members with 7 pieces of Career Advice that dogs have to offer.

I’m not suggesting that you don’t consider hiring a Career or Executive Coach, but these tips are a good place to start.

Parting Words on career advice from dogs

I hope you’ve enjoyed the short but relevant presentation the dogs (and guest cats) made.

As the human writing this blog post, I have 3 more tips that I picked up as the Leader of the Pack:

1. Follow the rules. How does a dog know which objects are okay to chew? The logic behind some rules may elude you, but unless it’s visibly unfair or breaking a law, it’s best to go along with them to preserve order in the workplace. If you can’t, find another job.
2. Persistence is a big part of success. Stay focused and keep on the trail no matter what obstacles arise. (Hint: If you get blocked from digging under the fence, maybe you can persuade someone to open the gate for you.)
3. Contribute to the pack. Above all, think beyond your own interests to participate as a team player. Take satisfaction in working together to achieve common goals and improve everyone’s well-being. You can accomplish much more working with others than you ever could on your own. Be a team player!

If you feel you need more guidance, then download Karmic Ally Coaching’s 5 Ways to stay Confident in a Competitive Workplace here or by clicking below.

Sticking to a dead end job for the money or feeling dis-empowered because of financial commitments is more common than you would imagine.

I covered how to overcome that fear and do the right thing by you in my post What’s more important – Money or Your toxic Job?

But what about a situation where it isn’t the money?

When your heart has stopped singing, you’re dragging yourself to work each morning or you feel you’ve gone as far as you can in your career and want more?

Or you’re in a job that is being made redundant. This has triggered a thought that has been lurking in your mind. That you want to do something different but ambivalent about stepping out of your comfort zone.

It could also be that you’ve moved up the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs and you’ve figured out your current career is not aligned with your new need. I’ve personally experienced this as I narrate in my Meet the Coach page.

It’s also the impression I get from the questions I’m often asked on Quora about mistakes in jobs or changing careers.

In the case of the former, the solution is easy. Find a new job but changing a career is a different kettle of fish and you need to be clear on what you want.

It’s apparent the answer seeker has already figured out they want to change their career but aren’t sure how to go about it.

Here’s what I feel.

Choosing a new career is never an easy choice.

Yet, following your passion is worth every effort that you put into planning a change in your career.

With adequate planning, the switch over can be exciting, motivating, and rejuvenating instead of fraught with worry.

If that’s your situation, consider the following factors for starters as you plan and implement your career change:

Assess your motives for the career change

The importance of this factor must not be underestimated. Changing a career, especially at a later stage of your career journey can be risky and might not be all that you think it is.

Hence, you need to unearth the reasons for your desire to change careers. Do you feel underappreciated, underpaid, overworked, or unsatisfied in your current position?

If so, dig deeper to discern whether your current employer or the career field as a whole is at the route of your dissatisfaction.

• If you discover that the source of your unhappiness is your employer, change employers rather than starting an entirely new career. It’s much easier to get a job within your current career field than to get your foot in the door of a completely separate career field.

• If your issue is being underpaid or overworked, it may not be necessary to change employers. Gather your information to support your view or make a business case for your request and have a talk with your supervisor. Tell them how your current position is making you feel. If you’re an asset to the company, you may be able to work out an agreement for a raise, promotion or fewer working hours.

Still not sure? Karmic Ally Coaching’s Changing Careers After 40 Tip Sheet will provide insights.

Continue your education and research

Continuing professional education and staying on top of developments in your field is a must.

But what about the new career?

If you’re considering a drastic career change, such as going from being an Internal Auditor to a career in Holistic Nursing, clearly you’ll need additional training. More common career changes may require less continued education, if any at all. 

• Consult with an admissions advisor of a local college or of one specializing in your new career field in order to discern whether any continued education or additional training is necessary. If so, discuss scheduling, whether it can be done online, tuition assistance, and so on.

• Search for job postings online which fit the career field you’d like to enter. Generally, the employer or recruiter will list the required education and experience necessary to be considered for the job.

• Connect with professionals in the new career field on LinkedIn and Facebook and request them for information. As long as you don’t pick their brains too much and are focused on the questions you have, you will get the information you want.

• In some instances, a certificate may not be enough to get your foot into the door of a new career field. You might also be required to do an internship or apprenticeship for a period that can range anywhere from 1 to 3 years which might not pay well. If your passionate about the new career field, you must work out the finances to support you during the apprenticeship if it is more than a one-year time investment.

• Consider the possibility that additional training may be all that’s necessary to improve your current career. Perhaps additional education will place you in line for a promotion or more challenging work. For example, if you’re working in a bank and aspire to a bank officer position, sitting the Bankers Institute Examination and passing them would position you for consideration for your desired job and step up the career ladder if you already have a good performance track record.

Take it slowly

This tip is based on my observation of amazing professionals who hire me for consultations after they have resigned rather than while they still had their jobs and could leverage their employment to appear desirable to a prospective employer.

The sad truth is it’s easier to get a new job when you have a job!

Hang on to your current paycheck for as long as you can, preferably until you can secure a position with a new employer. Set up interviews while you’re still employed and only quit your current position once you’ve found a job.

• When you’re currently employed with another company, you have more bargaining power in terms of salary when considering a position with a new employer.

• Once you’ve secured a position, it’s time to give notice to your current employer in accordance with your employment contract. Make sure your conduct is professional throughout this period. Be honest about your reason for leaving. This conduct, especially if it is a longer notice period of say 3 months increases the chances of a good recommendation. It will also prevent them from being surprised when someone calls to confirm a reference.

With the right research and planning that includes ensuring your family’s security, there’s no reason why you cannot explore a new career in a field that will make your heart sing and give you a new purpose.

When I wrote my account about the micro manager who we nicknamed Big Brother Cat and the team feeling like a galley of mice on a slave ship, I must have hit a nerve somewhere because it was a highly visited and read post. For sure each one of us has known one (maybe even 2 or 3) at some point of time in our careers.

The truth is, controlling bosses can slow us down and undermine our confidence. Nobody, and I mean nobody likes a boss or supervisor who second guesses our decisions and expects us to be available round the clock. It’s often a reason for employee attrition and one area that any manager can improve upon.

A professional who has been recently promoted to manager might indulge in micro-management at the beginning despite the leadership courses his employers might have sent him not because he’s a nasty person but in reality, there is a learning curve involved from making the shift from an Executive who executes to a Manager who manages.

The Art of Delegation has to be learned as is overcoming the fear that they might not be successful in their new role.

Then again, there are more experienced managers who still engage in micro-management like Big Brother Cat. I suspect in his case it was the feeling of a lack of control. His team was working more with the Technical Manager on the assignment, and he was reduced to doing a PR and Admin role.

The need to micromanage might also arise because the manager might have been let down in the past.

Perhaps he had worked for a micromanaging boss and having had no other role model, imbibed this style of management. It can also be caused by a deep sense of insecurity.

Whatever the root cause, it leads to low morale in the team and lowers productivity.

Some time back, one of my clients told me about a boss whom she reported to through her immediate boss who had become a monster. Not literally but the language in his emails had taken on a tone that she wasn’t used to and she started to wonder if she had done anything wrong?

She was working weekends to meet an important regulatory deadline and was throwing her work life balance out of gear for this deadline.

Fortunately she had shared details of the assignment with me during a previous coaching call and as an outsider I sensed what might be causing the Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde syndrome.

As a former Finance Director who had regulatory reporting requirements every quarter, I know the pressure to meet deadlines and report to the Board of Directors. Depending on the industry, there are key deliverables that are tied to the director’s remuneration, bonus and even job.

So, while the team might be working to the best of their ability, they are involved in a micro part of the delivery for which they are responsible but might not be aware of the big picture or how their work ties up to a bigger deliverable.

In such a case, a good boss would share the big picture with the team or at least his or her direct reports who would translate it down the line. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t.

Either way, the top boss does experience a sense of not being in control and powerless and voila, micromanagement manifests.

This is documented in Drake Baer’s article, Bosses Micromanage When They Feel Powerless.

One of the best ways to overcome this is to keep them in the loop with regular progress reports or if there is a roadblock, talk to them to tap into their wealth of experience and get some much required guidance.

The minute my client started sending weekly reports, the top boss went back to being normal.

Overbearing management styles are all too common and counterproductive. Most employees say they’ve been micro-managed at some point in their career, and studies show that workers perform worse when they feel like they’re being watched.

If your boss is hovering over your shoulder, encourage them to give you more space. Try these steps to gain more freedom and still get along with your boss.

5 Steps you can take to reduce Micromanagement

Assess if your performance is part of the problem.

Do you show up on time and follow through on your responsibilities? Close supervision could be a rational response when an employee tends to be less than reliable. Start out by investigating whether you could be contributing to the situation.

Be proactive.

Once you’ve assured yourself that you’re on top of your work, you can turn your attention to how to cope with your boss’s management style. Just as my client figured out that the top boss needed weekly progress reports and her silence creating stress, identify their anxiety triggers and figure out your plan of action in advance. (Bonus reading: 9 Signs Your Boss Is a Micromanager—and How to Handle Them)

Coordinate with colleagues.

Chances are your co-workers experience the same issues you do. Coordinate your efforts to show your boss that they can trust you to pull together to overcome challenges even while they’re traveling or focusing on strategy.

Document your activities.

Logging your accomplishments creates a paper trail. Having your facts straight helps you to prove your worth and maintain your peace of mind. This step is crucial in case the micromanagement is not because of the reasons I’m stating in this post, but a tactic that is being used to demonstrate your incompetence and an exit from the company (yes, this too happens in corporate politics).

Seek intervention.

When appropriate, you may be able to consult others without alienating your boss. If senior management asks for feedback, let them know your supervisor’s good qualities in addition to changes that could help you do a better job. Your HR department or employee assistance program may also offer relevant advice.

7 Ways to Manage the Micromanager

It takes self-confidence and high emotional intelligence to tackle a nitpick boss and to ensure that your work doesn’t suffer because of it.

I call it the Manage the Manager method and share tactics to ensure that your work is noticed while making your boss look good in Get Noticed!

You need to take charge of the situation before it takes charge of you and requires you polish your Emotional Intelligence skills.

Being proactive and empathetic will transform your relationship with a micromanaging boss. Learn to collaborate as a team, or at least maintain harmony. You’ll enjoy more autonomy as a result.

Here’s how I would do it.

1. Provide updates. Frequent status reports keep your boss informed without their having to ask. Assure them that things are running smoothly.
2. Build rapport and create a personal connection. Respect and compassion enhance any working relationship. Remind yourself of what you like about your boss. Make time for small talk and sharing common interests. A strong foundation will make any disagreement easier to handle.
3. Create more opportunities. Is your boss interfering with your work because they don’t have a full plate of their own? Add value by presenting them with public speaking opportunities and sales leads. Helping your boss to shine is a smart way to advance your own career.
4. Clarify your role. Listen closely to your boss and observe their behavior. That way you can understand their preferences and anticipate their needs. Maybe they like booking their own travel arrangements. Maybe they care more about employees following instructions than taking initiative.
5. Ask for feedback. Find out what your boss is thinking. Ask questions about what results they’re looking for and how you’re measuring up. Pinpoint strengths you can build on and changes that they would like to see.

Reinforce any positive interactions by letting your boss know how much you appreciate their efforts when you’re allowed to take charge of a project or find your own approach. Tell them that you enjoy working with them and that they’re helping you to contribute more.

We’ve all experienced micromanaging supervisors in our career and good professionals learn over time to mitigate the adverse effects of the Big Brother Cat Manager.

What micro-manager managing tips can you offer?