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How Can You Build Trust With Your Manager?

Do you know what your manager expects of you? If the conversation about expectations doesn’t happen, then you don’t know if you are doing what your manager wants you to do. Having this conversation early on in the relationship allows for clarity on the ways of working together and communication. It sounds simple enough. Why don’t people do it? There may be a fear or anxiety that people may have about this type of conversation. Will they be able to meet the…
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Do You Think Managing Up is a Good Thing?

Building a strong relationship with your manager is important to your career. Your manager can support you and help you gain visibility to move up in your career or they can also be the person that holds you back from progressing any further. Managing up is focused on finding the best ways to work together which ultimately supports you. How can you help them achieve their goals which can provide you additional opportunities for visibility? What strengths do you…
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What Is Helpful To Know About Your Manager?

There are some key things that you need to know to have an effective working relationship with your boss. What are your manager’s strengths and opportunity areas? No leader can know or be good at everything so it is important to do some of this research. How can you help support your manager in the opportunity areas? Look for the things that will increase the value of your relationship and will provide ways that you can build trust. It is also…
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How Can You Support Your Manager Like A Client?

I attended a training class many years ago on coaching and feedback. The two big things that I remember from that class were: give feedback to someone in a timely manner and that your manager is your top client. I had lots of clients at the time, but never considered that my manager was one of them. It was one of those aha moments for me and it made a lot of sense. This type of thinking shifts how you…
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Can Being Visible Make A Difference For You?

Can being visible make a difference for you and your career? The short answer is absolutely yes without a doubt. Everyone that I have worked with clients, mentees that I have mentored and people that I have interviewed for my book. Everyone of them found that visibility is important to their success. Many people view this is a gender based challenge that women struggle with the most. Many studies have been done to show that it is true that women do struggle…
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What Visibility Will Help You Transition In The Best Way?

Are you thinking about taking on a new role in your company? How will the leaders who make the hiring decisions know that you are ready? It comes down to taking action and raising your visibility. Management needs to see that you can do what is required before you get the role. That means you need to be visible to them. Think about the key responsibilities in the role that you want and how can you demonstrate those things? Show them that what…
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What Are The Benefits Of Visibility For You?

There are many benefits that you will gain by being more visible. I will share a few to help you see why visibility is important. First, this may seem basic, but people will know who you are. This is especially important in larger organizations where there are many team members that are not known to senior management. They are known to their team members and manager, but that is it. When it comes time for succession planning, if you are…
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What If You Took The Lead To Be Visible?

Think about a meeting you have been in with a large group of people. A question came up for you, but you hesitated to ask it. What happened in that moment? For some, they may assume that everyone else probably knows the answer and they are embarrassed to ask, so they keep quiet. For others, it may mean that they don’t want to stand out by asking the question, so they don’t say anything and choose to ask someone else later. In both of these…
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Is Being Visible Important To You?

There are two ways of thinking about being visible in the workplace. One is that “I work really hard and my management knows that I do a good job so I don’t need any more visibility.” The other is that “I work hard and do a good job, but I also recognize that getting in front of my management is important to my success.” I was someone who believed in the first example above. Being visible felt like “playing politics” and I…
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What Story Are You Telling Yourself About Being an Introvert?

Are you labeling yourself without realizing it? On a recent podcast, I talked about being an introvert and how I embraced that label. Although it seemed like a good thing at the time, I may have leaned on that label a bit too much. Assessments I first learned about being an introvert when I took the Meyers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) assessment. My experience with this assessment was quite a few years ago, and at that time, I had no…
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What is Impostor Syndrome?

Are you familiar with the term impostor syndrome and what it means? Do you know how to recognize it in yourself or in others? The term impostor syndrome was first identified in 1978 by Dr. Pauline Clance and Dr. Suzanne Imes, whose research determined that this challenge impacts overachieving women who try to fit in and be perfect. The high achieving women attributed their success to mistakes, luck, or because someone hadn’t yet figured out that they didn’t belong where…
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Have You Tried Slowing Down to Speed Up?

When someone first told me that I should “slow down to speed up,” I couldn’t even process what that would mean for me. There was too much to do and no time to get it all done! If I slowed down, then I would fall behind even further. What I came to realize though, is that slowing down is what is needed to prepare for what is ahead. Taking the time to reflect, be strategic, plan, create new ideas or…
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