Improve skills

Maintain Your Mentoring Relationship

Securing the right mentor is a major hurdle, but maintaining the relationship can be just as challenging. To keep the mentoring relationship going, try these three things:

· Provide structure. Set up regular meetings with agendas so your conversations don't degenerate into aimless chitchat. Make sure each meeting moves you toward your goals.

· Expect rigor. If your mentor doesn't provide regular assignments, ask for them, and work them into your agendas.

· Know when to move on. Once you've achieved your goals, move on before the law of diminishing returns kicks in. But stay in touch. Your mentor may become a sponsor who advocates for you even once your formal relationship ends

Command Attention like an Executive

Executive presence is not an innate quality; it is a set of behaviors that you can learn over time. Whether you are a natural wallflower or a social butterfly, you can enhance your presence by doing the following:

· Focus and relax. Calm is the foundation of presence. Use your breathing as an anchor that you return to when you get stressed or start to lose focus.

· Gain awareness. To change your behavior, you need to know how you are perceived. Pay attention to how people react to you and ask for candid feedback from those you trust.

· Practice with support. Telling a colleague or mentor you're working on presence can boost your skills and confidence. The feedback you receive can also reinforce momentum

Overcome the Awkward Silence

Discussions during meetings can be feast or famine. Either you can't get a word in edgewise or no one speaks up. Next time your meeting falls silent, try these tactics:

· Let it be. Wait a moment before breaking the silence and offering a suggestion. The group may need time to reflect on an idea.

· Name it. Call out what's happening, and ask the group about it, "It seems we've gone quiet. Does anyone want to talk about what's going on?"

· Take a break. Sometimes a short break gives people the chance to refocus.

Encourage Innovation on Your Team

Organizations need innovation on all fronts, not just in new products, services, or technologies. But many managers don't innovate because they don't think it's their job. Here's how you can build a stronger innovation culture on your team:

· Implement an immediate innovation. As a team, identify ideas that will reduce costs, save time, or improve customer service. Pick one or two to implement right away to demonstrate success.

· Identify an ambitious goal. Once your team has confidence in its ability to innovate, set a larger goal. Can you reduce costs by 50%? Can you combine services to help customers?

· Continually foster innovation. Include "Innovation" as a category in performance reviews. Recognize colleagues who try new approaches even if the results aren't perfect. And, give people time to think and experiment.

Always Use Meaningful Words

Meaningless phrases, such as "To be honest" and "Like I said," often creep up in meetings and presentations. Using these expressions undermines your credibility. Try replacing this filler language with meaning by doing the following:

· Switch from conditional to declarative. Couching statements with phrases like "I believe" or "We think" weakens your argument. Strengthen your points by cutting to the chase. If you must use the conditional, try the stronger "We're confident" or "We expect."

· Be positive. Negative statements sound defensive and fail to provide information. Instead of saying "What we're not is…" tell your audience exactly what you are.

To Reduce Stage Fright, Prepare

Good preparation reduces performance anxiety. Next time you need to present to an audience, follow these three steps:

· Be confident in your topic. Your audience already believes that you're the expert, so don't try to bluff. If the people you're presenting to feel you're unsure of your material, they'll lose trust in you.

· Imagine questions people might ask. Construct answers before you give your speech. Either incorporate the answers into your presentation or be ready to provide them during Q&A.

· Memorize the first minute of your presentation. You experience your greatest anxiety at the beginning of a speech. Knowing the opening of your presentation will give you a good start.

Know the Basics of Putting Your Professional Self Online

Social media is not just for socializing. When handled correctly, you can use it to enhance your personal brand, establish your expertise, or demonstrate your digital fluency. Commit to using social media for professional reasons and be proactive about managing your activity and image. Consider what potential employers or colleagues will see—you don't want them to discover only pictures of you and your dog, or worse. Make sure at a minimum you have a LinkedIn account with a completed profile. Try tweeting or blogging about your area of expertise, thereby creating content that others can forward, retweet, or repost. This can help you establish yourself as an expert.

Measure the Money You're Making

To understand your company's financials, start with these three measures of how money is coming in:

· Growth. Growth in sales is usually—but not always—a positive sign. Look for year over year growth but remember that it has to be profitable and sustainable.

· Cash generation. Cash allows companies to stay in business. Cash generation is the difference between all the cash that flows into the business and all the cash that flows out. Investigate where the cash is generated, how it's used, and whether enough is coming in.

· Return on assets. A company's return on assets is its net profit divided by the average value of its assets during a given period of time. This measure shows you how well your company is using its assets to make money.

Delegate, Then Disengage

Entrusting a project to someone else can be tough. But if you don't rely on others, you'll always end up doing everything yourself. You'll also shortchange those who could learn by taking on new tasks. Once you delegate something, don't be tempted to micromanage the process. Agree on the expected outcomes and just let go. If you've asked a team member to take care of an important presentation, don't spend endless time on edits and corrections. Be clear on the parameters and remove yourself so she can do it her way, not yours. This is much more efficient than taking over, and the end product will likely be better.

Don't Let Latecomers Ruin Your Meeting

No matter how well you've prepared your meeting, things will go wrong. One of the more common disruptions is attendees showing up late. If people belatedly walk in, try these three things:

· Don't recap. Resist the temptation to catch up latecomers. Keep moving forward. You can update them afterward.

· Assign a job. If you sense someone might be late, give her something to do during the meeting. If she has a job, she's more likely to show up on time.

· Walk him there. Physically help a chronic latecomer get to the meeting. Stop by his desk at the appointed time and ask if you can walk together.

Make Time to Prioritize

Do you truly understand how you spend your time? Most people assume they dedicate more hours to strategic work than they actually do. Look back on the past month in your calendar. Add up the time you spent on your strategic priorities. Was it enough? It's likely less than you thought. That's because most people tend to do the most urgent things instead of the most meaningful things. Identify your top five priorities for the coming year, and each month make sure you spend enough time on those priorities. If you don't, it's time to cancel some meetings and build in time for the things that matter.

Network with Purpose

When it comes to networking, quality matters more than quantity. But how do you meet the right people? One way is to ask for introductions. Reach out to influential people in your network and ask them to put you in touch with others. Be specific about the introductions you want and why you want them. Explain what you are trying to achieve and the kind of contacts that would help you get there. Are you seeking your next job opportunity? Are you looking for ways to promote yourself? If you're uncomfortable with being bold, remember that people enjoy helping others and you can always return the favor with some introductions of your own.

Get Your Project Going Fast

It's challenging to launch a new project, especially if you're battling layers of bureaucracy. Don't fight the red tape. Instead, work around it to make things happen. Here are two ways:

· Use what you've got. Instead of jumping through hoops to get approvals and formal funding, simply use the people you know, the budget you have, and the resources you can muster.

· Secure only what you need for the next step. Don't try to get everyone on board. Just ask for permission to take the next action. Some people will want to know the end goal, but get the least amount of commitment you need to push the project forward.

Make Your Cube a Better Place to Work

Many people spend more time in their office than they do in their bed. You deserve a comfortable workspace. Here are three ways to make your office a place where you can accomplish your best work:

· Sit with your back protected. Research shows that people are more comfortable when their backs are not exposed. If your back is to an open space, pivot your chair and use a different section of your desk.

· Make adjustments. Solving small discomforts—adding a light to your workspace or bringing in a small fan—will help you feel in control of your physical environment.

· Make it yours. People who personalize their spaces are happier at work. Put a family photo on your desk or hang up a poster of something important to you.

Get Mentoring that Grows with Your Career

Early in your career, you may ask mentors to help you with specific skills. But as you face mid-career challenges, you need mentoring that's tailored to your individual strengths and career goals. And, you need mentors who can increase your access to career-advancement opportunities. Work with advisers who can help you take the skills you've honed in your current role and apply them to broader challenges. Attract these mentors by demonstrating your experience and articulating your eagerness for the next opportunity.

Make Time for Meeting Prep

With so many meetings, busy managers don't always have time to think about the goals of those meetings. But showing up unprepared only makes a meeting longer and less effective. Try blocking out time on your calendar for prep work and to think about what you want to accomplish. If a meeting is an hour, you may need 30 minutes to prepare. For critical meetings you may need much more time. If you plan accordingly, you'll arrive ready to accomplish what you've set out to do, not catching up.

Before Promoting Someone, Do a Test-Run

If you suspect an employee is ready for a promotion, don't jump right in. Performance in a current role doesn't always predict performance in a future one. Gather more information by designing an assignment for the employee that mimics the tasks and challenges of the new job. Be transparent and tell him that you are using this experiment to test his ability. Make it short-term, outlining clear success criteria and an evaluation timeline. Be careful not to invisibly promote someone without recognizing his contributions. Permanently providing more responsibility without a change in title or pay can sap motivation.

Say Less and Convey More

When you're giving a presentation and nervousness kicks in, it's tough to be brief. But, your audience expects you to state your conclusion and stand behind it, not ramble on aimlessly. You can only do that if you zero in on the purpose. When you prepare for your talk, work backwards. Before you put anything down on paper, know the key message you want your audience to remember. Ask yourself: If my presentation were 30 seconds instead of 30 minutes, what would I say? Force yourself to summarize your key point. Once you've done that, think through what other information you'll need to support that point.

Get Your Team Thinking Like Entrepreneurs

Teams in large organizations can easily get tangled in bureaucracy. It takes a long time to execute on projects when waiting for approvals and gathering resources. But, you can get around this by helping your team members think and act like entrepreneurs. Try doing the following:

· Experiment. Challenge one or two people on your team to quietly push a project forward without analyzing it. Protect them from those who may question this approach.

· Broadcast results. Share the results of this experiment with other leaders in your company, and encourage them to support the project.

· Manage it closely. Throughout the process, ensure that the costs never exceed your organization's acceptable losses, so your team can clearly see the upside of acting fast.

Craft an Attention-Grabbing Message

With so much information out there, getting your audience's attention is tough. But it is also essential. Consider these three things next time you craft a message that needs to be heard:

· Make a comparison. Whether you are selling a product or making a point, remember that people like to draw connections. Help your audience understand by comparing your message to something else.

· Piggyback on the familiar. Take something most people know and make it your own. Spinoffs of the "Got Milk?" slogan have done this successfully.

· Be specific. Use simple, specific details to solidify your point. These give your audience something to remember when you're no longer in front of them.

Find Mentors Who Speed Up Your Learning

Many of the jobs that Baby Boomers will vacate over the next two decades will go to young upstarts. But how do you compete for jobs formerly held by people with decades more experience? The right mentors can help speed up your learning. Consider contacting the following types of people:

· A senior executive with experience in a country where your company is expanding—perhaps in an emerging market, such as Brazil or Russia. Develop a more global mind-set.

· A high-performing peer in an adjacent industry. Gain a new, broader perspective on the field in which your company operates.

· A mid-level manager in a sector your business serves. Get into your customer's shoes and see how the industry looks from another standpoint.

Forget Motivation, You Need Follow Through

When approaching a difficult task—getting to the gym, writing an important presentation—you may chide yourself for lacking motivation to get it done. However, it's often not a question of motivation, but follow through. You may want to do the task—you know it's important—but your brain talks you out of it. You tell yourself you can do it tomorrow or you have more urgent things to do. Don't let your mind sabotage your aspirations. Make a specific decision about what you want to do and don't question it. Tell yourself: I will work out tomorrow at 6 AM or I will finish the presentation by Tuesday at 1 PM. If your mind starts to argue with you, ignore it.