Month: December 2023

What Everyone Should Know When Starting a New Job

Before starting any new experience, ask yourself, “What do I need to know?” ~ jaywren

Starting a New Job

The first few weeks in starting a new job are critical. You must establish yourself as a great hire. Moreover, while people are forming impressions of you as a new hire, you are faced with many challenges. To deal with the challenges, the first step is learning what to expect. The second step is learning how to prepare for and handle new situations.

Here are steps for gaining support and respect at your new job.

Seize upon small wins. You bring with you experience, qualifications, and skills. Use those traits and skills to draw positive attention to you. If there is a task or project that enables you to shine, take on these responsibilities. Some of these small wins can relieve you of the pressure of succeeding in areas where you feel more challenged.

Impress your boss. Do the job your boss expects you to do. Make your number one priority to do the things that your boss has told you to do and in the order in which your boss directed you. Let your boss know when you complete each task. When you are giving your boss more information than you need to give, your boss will let you know.

Build positive relationships. Create a chart of the organization. Learn who does what and who reports to which person. Treat everyone with respect. Do not poison a relationship with anyone. You may later learn that the maintenance manager is a scratch golfer who is the golf partner with a board director at the annual company golf tournament. However, do not waste your time listening to everyone who wants to talk with you. Forge relationships with people who can help you with a successful start.

Some of the people who are junior to you will help you understand your job and your new company.

Moreover, turn to others for their experience and intelligence. Often, they will bond with you over your interest in seeking their help.

Write it down. Make a list of the names, the contact information, the jobs, and the relationships of the people you meet. When your boss tells you to do something, write it down. Write the task and the action date.

Get in step. The first weeks of the new job are an orientation. You will meet new managers, new co-workers, and, perhaps, new people who work on your team. You will learn the details of your responsibilities. Moreover, you will get a measure of the authority you have in managing your new responsibilities.

Learn the company culture and way of doing things. Do not try to change things until you have established yourself in the job for which your company hired you.

Become a sponge. Avoid giving your opinion when you can listen and learn. You don’t have to try to prove how smart you are.

Be open to new ideas. A dangerous pitfall for experienced people is to do things the way they did them at their former employer.

For example, when I entered sales in the consumer products industry, I sold facial tissue, bathroom tissue, and disposable diapers. Except for facial tissue, the products I sold were daily consumer goods. Consumer demand was the same throughout the year.

When I left that company, I went to a company that sold cameras and film. The transition for me required adapting to different selling cycles and new methods of projecting sales. During the holidays, the photography retailers would sell as much in a day as they sold in a month during non-holidays. A day of film sales during the holidays was as great as a month of sales the rest of the year.

Prioritize tasks. Before starting each day, make a list of five things you want to accomplish that day.

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash

Blessings

It is your responsibility to stop thinking negative thoughts about yourself before they become fixed in your mind as beliefs. Smile. Say something nice about yourself. Make a list of your blessings.

Smile

There are many things that you can do to calm your jitters.  Perhaps the most overlooked way is simply to smile.  People smile when they are happy.  And equally important is that smiling can help you feel happy.  “Fake ’till you make it” is an ambiguous term.  Some people see it as a disingenuous way of faking your skills.  Another view is that faking confidence can help you gain confidence. A smile triggers thoughts that generate happiness.
The smiley face emoji says to other people you approve of what they have to say.  Smiling has a similar effect.  It tells people you approve of them.  It creates trust and helps people open up to you.

You are generating charisma.  People find your presence attractive.  Your smiling helps people feel more confident and comfortable being around you.  In turn, they smile and you feel confident from their signal of approval.

A frown will chase away friends.  Ah, but there is something about a smile that attracts people and draws people to you.

So, let it go.  When you see people, start with a smile.  As people approach, nod and smile.  When you are shaking hands with people, look at them and smile.

Social Anxiety: Is It Killing Your Career?

“Don’t let the world change your smile.  Let your smile change the world.”  A Work in Progress by Connor Franta

Social anxiety is common.  People who are shy are not the only people who experience social anxiety.  People who are confident about what they say or do around friends and family may feel social anxiety when they are among strangers or in front of an audience.

Social anxiety can make you avoid opportunities for work, fun, and networking.  It can cut your opportunities for leadership roles.  Your anxiety can generate signals that make it harder for people to reach out to you.

Photo by Solen Feyissa on Unsplash

Why Intelligent People Say Stupid Things on the Internet

Wouldn’t it be great if you could make everyone on the Internet either agree with you or shut the heck up?  You betcha.  I’ve tried.  But they don’t shut up.  They just come back and post more stuff to tick you off.  I can either embrace them or avoid them.

Emotions and Critical Thinking

Beliefs are convictions or assumptions that people hold to be true, even if they can’t be proven or disproven. When issues challenge our beliefs and stir our emotions, we find comfort in seeking information to confirm our beliefs. To think critically, we must free ourselves from our emotions. However, religious, political, and cultural beliefs are not like math or chemistry. These beliefs vary based on ideas that make us feel safe and accepted.

The Risks of  Saying Stupid Stuff on the Internet

Wow, the Internet is immediate and permanent.  And that’s a long time!  I see screen captures of deleted Tweets, Facebook posts, and Instagram on the Internet all the time.

I have posted and deleted material I later thought might possibly be sketchy.  When my gut tells me that I am posting something sketchy, I side with my gut. There is absolutely nothing I can post in a forum that is worth my reputation.

Trolling and Trolls

I love Internet forums.  I read forums for fun and for information.

But forums have a sneaky way of getting readers into a blind date with a troll.  A few months ago, I made the mistake of giving my opinion as opposed to the facts on a forum, only to find that a troll challenged me to explain myself.  Answering the person would only have made the conversation grow.  How wonderful, I could have a relationship with a troll!  I deleted the comment.

On a gut level, the idea of trolling has some appeal.  You know, you create a sneaky identity just to sound off with your opinions and set people right.  But this tactic has a price, especially when people lift your covers.  I read an article a few months ago about a politician who spent $35,000 to find the identity of a troll.  And he found him!

Occasionally, I read an offensive post, something intended to tick people off, at least tick some people.  These posts have a magic for creating rants and counter rants.  People who know how to troll take as much or more pleasure in making people angry as they do in attracting people who agree with them.  Reacting to trolling just raises the post in forum streams.  I just let it go, let it go, let it go.  ♫ ♫ ♫

How to Lose Friends and Lose Influence: Talk about Politics on the Internet

The web is rife with political stuff during political seasons.  Most people have a bias more than a brain when it comes to politics.  Politicians do not give people information.  They give people sound bites, clickbait and headlines to chum the waters for political fish.  People can rise to the bait suck it up.  But political chum is less cool in business and social forums. When I see people posting chum in my Internet feeds, I unfollow them.  See ya, not.  Don’t want your tweets. Don’t want your face on Facebook.  Don’t want your political wisdom on LinkedIn. No, no, no, not now, not ever.

I don’t unfriend them or disconnect from them all the time.  I just unfollow Friends Who Post Politics on the Internet.

Beliefs and claims are important elements in critical thinking because they provide the foundation for reasoning and evaluating evidence. Beliefs are convictions or assumptions that a person holds to be true, even if they can’t be proven or disproven. They often shape a person’s perspective and understanding of the world. Claims, on the other hand, are statements that can be evaluated based on evidence. In critical thinking, it is important to distinguish between beliefs and claims. One should not take their beliefs as fact without evaluating the evidence and reasoning behind them. Additionally, one should evaluate claims by examining the evidence and reasoning presented, and considering alternative perspectives.It is also important to be aware of one’s own beliefs, and to be open to re-evaluating them in light of new evidence. This allows for more accurate and fair evaluations of claims.Overall, critical thinking requires a balance of considering one’s own beliefs and claims, while also evaluating the evidence and reasoning behind them.

Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

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