Career Strategies: “H” is for Habits

Career Strategies: “H” is for Habits

 

Two young fish are swimming along when they meet an older fish swimming in the opposite direction.
“Good morning, boys,” says the older fish. “How’s the water?”
The two younger fish continue swimming and before long one turns to the other and says, “What the heck’s water?”

This, says author Charles Duhigg, is the ubiquity of habit. Habits are the “unthinking choices and invisible decisions that surround us every day—until, just by looking at them, they become visible.”

Any time is a great time to take steps to break a poor or begin a new healthy habit and the new year seems to be when many turn attention to “making a fresh start” on some aspect of life.

Habits are powerful things–ask anyone who has tried to break a “bad” one (smoking) or an expensive one (Starbucks). Pleasurable things can become habits quickly (a TV show) but things that are good for you but not much fun (exercise) seem to take forever to get “ingrained”. It’s said it takes 21-28 days to establish a habit. Why then, after years of running, do I still have to force myself?

What does any of this have to do with building a successful career?

Building good habits at work will give your career a boost and give you an advantage if you suddenly find yourself in transition. Good habits promote productivity and build/maintain professional relationships with others up, down and outside the management hierarchy. Showing up on time and doing what you were hired to do is expected. Good habits that boost your career go beyond expectations.

In an article that ran in Forbes, psychologist Cy Wakeman suggests six healthy habits to strengthen your career:

• Seek opportunities to grow yourself and your skills
• Be grateful for feedback
• Focus on your own contribution (rather than on what co-workers are doing)
• Be flexible
• Let results drive your work
• Keep your emotions on an even keel (limit the drama)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/cywakeman/2013/02/26/six-healthy-habits-for-your-career/

Here are a few more habits I recommend:

Keep up. How? Don’t allow yourself the excuse of being “too busy” to fall behind in terms of staying on top of what is happening in your field. Even if your workload is heavy and constant, make it a habit to read at least one article about your field every week. We all have 15 minutes at some point in the day. Don’t nap on the train, read an article or read an article over lunch. Articles are easy to find online.

 Nurture your network. What does this mean? First, determine your network. These could be former co-workers, bosses, students, and 1st connections on LinkedIn. Who has motivated you? Who would you want to contact for job leads or contacts should your current job disappear? Making that call will be much easier if you have kept up with that person(s) over time. A quick call or email to keep in touch is all that is required. Again, we all have 15 minutes and that’s about as long as it takes to touch base with someone. Maybe an article you read would be of interest to them. Pass it along.

Have a plan. This is something many of us put aside, especially if we have a job we like and in which we feel secure. But just as Wakeman advises, “seek opportunities to grow yourself and your skills”, so should we have a plan for what we want to do next or what we would do if something should happen to our current position. A plan for the future should always include an updated resume. An updated resume is like having insurance. You don’t want to use it, but if the unexpected strikes, you’re sure glad you had the foresight.

Back in the day (1989), business guru Stephen R. Covey outlined seven habits he had gleaned from researching over 200 years of success literature. His book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, was the go-to guide in the 1990s.

His habits have withstood the test of time. If you’re not familiar with them they are:

• Be Proactive
• Begin with the End in Mind
• Put First Things First
• Think Win/Win
• Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the Saw

If you’re not sure what each of these mean, do what I did, and re-read (or read for the first time) the book. Covey wasn’t just talking about habits for a successful career. He was talking about habits for a successful life. Perhaps reading a chapter of this timeless book each week in lieu of an article is a good place to start getting in the habit of keeping up and creating a plan.

Want to learn more about habits themselves? Another book I recommend is the one I quoted at the top of this post, The Power of Habit: Why We Do Things in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg.

I have a review of it on my website…take the 15 minutes discussed above and  give my review a read. http://www.jwillinconsulting.com/coach.htm