How Thoughts, Feelings and Behaviours Help or Hinder Your Career
You can achieve whatever you set out to do in your career.
Maybe you have heard this mantra quoted quite a bit.
You might have embraced it.
Alternatively you might have dismissed completely.
What I’m pretty convinced about is what you think, feel and your behaviours impact on your career.
Throughout your career you are going to have times when things are going really well.
Equally there are going to be times when you are finding things more of a struggle.
Whether we like to acknowledge it or not, we all tend to fall into a routine.
We do the same things, even when we know it’s not producing the desired results.
We have one less positive experience and draw the conclusion that we are hopeless and a lost cause.
We allow the self talk or little voice in our head to create doubt and worse still stop us from even trying.
Now let’s be clear there are going to be some things that you do better than others.
Sometimes the margins between being pretty competent at something and exceptional are very small.
Let’s take job interviews as an example.
Most think that job interviews are going to be hard.
They feel like they have to give a perfect performance in the interview.
As a result they get nervous, flustered and don’t perform to their potential.
The funny thing is I’ve asked well over a thousand people how long they typically spend preparing for a job interview.
About 60% do a minimal amount of preparation.
The behaviour they are adopting is not yielding job offers.
The obvious thing to do would be to change their behaviour.
To look at the things they find easy in job interviews.
To look at the things that seem to trip them up time and time again.
To commit to doubling or trebling the amount of time they spend preparing.
All of these are within your control.
Another good example is presenting at work.
If you’re an accountant or professional this is a core skill.
Yet often think they are no good at presenting.
Of course the way to get better at presenting like any skill is not to do it less but to actively seek out opportunities to present. To learn how to structure your presentation. To get clear about your goals. To better understand your audience.
So here’s my recommendations:
- Challenge your thinking. Instead of saying you are no good at something focus on thinking about ways of getting better.
- Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Often he greatest learning and growth comes when you embrace that feeling of challenge.
- Do more of what’s working. In other words look to build on your strengths and manage your weaknesses.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.