In this post, I’ll post some things I learned from reading books on how to be professional in a corporate environment.
You do not need to go around telling people things such as “I am the smartest person on the team” or “I know way more than _ “ or “_ doesn’t know anything.” If you want others to view you as someone who is good at your job, simply be good at your job.
Admit when you don’t know something and ask questions when needed. Some people don’t like to ask questions or admit they don’t know something because they think it will make them look less smart. If you truly want to improve, you cannot be afraid to appear unknowledgeable at times.
It is not worth spending a lot of time arguing over something minor with someone. In that scenario, just let the other person do what they want if no agreement has been reached within a few minutes.
Do not try to make someone else feel dumb. Sometimes someone might intentionally use words that they know someone else won’t understand in an attempt to make this other person not look as smart. This does a lot more harm than good. Intentionally try to dumb down what you are saying so that the other person can understand.
Sometimes your manager will ask something like “hey will you be able to have this done by __ ?” Never reply “yes” to this unless you know for sure you can have this done in time. When you make commitments, others may make plans around your commitments. This makes not following through with commitments very problematic. Any time that you are asked if you can have something done by a certain date and you aren’t sure if you can have it done in time, communicate that. You can say something like “I predict there is a 70% chance I’ll have it done by __ .” Or you can say “I won’t be able to have this done by ___ .”
Don’t go around starting drama, especially in public places with people around. If you have a problem with someone, it is generally better to address the issue with them 1 on 1 in a private area than in a public area like a meeting. When you try to address them in a meeting, it can come across more along the lines of trying to assert your dominance. If you still have issues after having a 1 on 1 meeting with a person, try speaking with your manager for advice. If that doesn’t get you farther, consider having a conversation with HR.
There is really not much of a benefit to ranting or complaining. If there is something out of your control, thinking about it or talking about it won’t do anything. If something is in your control, you should brainstorm which steps would be appropriate to address the issue you are having. If you are not willing to take steps to address the issue, then don’t think about it.
If you are sitting at your desk and some people in the vicinity are starting some drama, ignore it and keep doing what you are doing. If you are in a meeting and someone starts drama, try to de-escalate the situation. If two people are disagreeing with each other, you can say something like “this is a really interesting topic to brainstorm the recommended approach for. I think you guys both make some great points.” If this is a topic that is not important, then you can follow up and say “it does appear that there are some other items on our agenda that we are needing to get to so I think it would be beneficial if we could move on to __ and then come back to your guys’ topic of __ at a later point in time. Or if it is a topic that needs to be discussed, go ahead and give your take on the situation and see if anyone else would be interested in giving their take. If it turns out that a majority of people feel the same way about which approach to take, then take that approach and communicate to the people on the other end “I think there may still be some merit in the idea you guys had so let’s keep that in mind as a backup plan if the approach we take doesn’t work out quite as well as predicted.”
If it turns out that you are doing the majority of the talking, give some of the others an opportunity to speak if they would like to. Do not finish the sentences of others as they are talking. Let them finish their sentences without interrupting them.
If someone brings up a nice idea in the meeting and you want talk in favor of that idea at a later point in time, reference the person who initially spoke about the idea so it doesn’t look like you are trying to take credit for something they came up with. For example, you can say “I really like the idea that __ came up with. That sounds to me like a good approach because __ .”
Earlier, we talked about not spending much time arguing or discussing something that is very minor. If there is a minor concern, it would still be OK to attempt to discuss it briefly. You just wouldn’t try to discuss it for a long time. For bigger concerns, it would be OK to be willing to discuss it for a little longer. Any time that you do not like an idea that someone has or the way that something is done, you should present a potential alternative. If you don’t present an alternative, then it is unclear to the other person that any action needs to be taken. It also becomes more unclear to the other person as to what exactly you are looking for.
If you do not like what someone else is doing or saying, the first thing you want to do is try to understand why they have this view point. If you still have concerns, now is the time to present your alternative. You can say “hey bud, I’ve been thinking about __ and am interested to hear your take on an idea I came up with. I was thinking we could go along the lines of doing __ . What is your take on that?”
Keep in mind that you want to generally speak up when you have a difference of opinion. If you always stay silent, then that could result in your team taking a sub-optimal approach due to you not giving your input. So it is good to speak up-just do so in a professional way.
It is unhelpful to say something like “__ is bad at __ .” This is more destructive criticism. We want to give constructive criticism. We want to communicate recommendations for improvement. It is important to come across as having the intention of wanting to help the person. The best way to do this is to provide ‘sandwich’ feedback where you tell someone something they are doing good at, recommend an opportunity for improvement, and then tell them something else that they are doing good at. You also want to make it appear like it will not be difficult for this person to make this improvement and that they are already working on making this improvement. Also make it sound like this area was difficult for you (even if it wasn’t) and communicate what you did to improve in that area. For example, you could tell someone “you have done a great job in __ . You are continuing to improve in __ . That was a tough area for me too a while back. To keep advancing in that area I had to do __ and __ so I’d be interested to see how doing that works for you or if you have any other ideas I’m happy to discuss with you. You are also doing great in ___ . Keep up the great work!”
It may appear to be a good idea to hoard knowledge in an attempt to make yourself appear more important to the team’s success. It would be better for your team if you take more of a team mindset and share the knowledge you have learned. Not only that, but it would actually be better for yourself too. Hoarding knowledge means that when new technologies come around, you are stuck working on the old stuff because you are the only one who knows that old stuff. If you spread the knowledge to teammates, you can potentially move up and work on the new stuff while they take over on that old stuff.
Some people who are unsatisfied at work will threaten to quit their job in an attempt to try to get their manager to succumb to pressure and improve the state of things. This is a bad idea. If you do this, your manager will most likely start looking for your replacement and then fire you as soon as the replacement is found. Nobody likes negativity. If things at your job are unsatisfactory, try to talk with your manager or HR in a professional way about potential improvements. If no improvements are able to be made, you can accept the situation and peacefully stay or you can start looking for jobs elsewhere. In either case, you should remain positive because being negative will only make the situation worse.
Don’t. Haters are just looking for a reaction out of you. The more you think about them or the more you reply to them, the more you are doing what they want. Your best move is to just ignore them and keep going about your business.