You’ve probably heard that your reputation precedes you – and it’s true. But the truth is a good reputation is built slowly, and losing it is all too easy! So how do you manage yourself for career success? It’s an important question! Why? Because how you conduct yourself in the workplace impacts your career opportunities and shapes your professional relationships.

If you want to be successful, you must project a professional image. This professionalism is reflected in how you relate to others, how you dress and the presentation of your workspace.

Managing Yourself for Success is an online course that will teach you about accountability and professionalism in the workplace. You will learn how to develop business etiquette and how to nurture mutually beneficial and professional relationships.

Have you heard about self-coaching and self-empowerment tools? This course will fast-track your career by capitalising on your professional strengths and identifying any further professional development areas.

This course is ideal for anyone who wants to project an accountable and professional image and use the power of a growth and positive mindset to enhance career success!

Learning Outcomes

Outcomes achieved by undertaking this course for career success include:

• Identifying the key characteristics of business etiquette
• Recalling the importance of dressing professionally
• Recognising examples of appropriate workspace presentation
• Understanding how to conduct yourself professionally beyond the office
• Recognising and reversing negative self-talk
• Replacing self-defeating talk with the language of self-coaching
• How to choose statements that reflect an attitude of job ownership
• Recognising actions that demonstrate initiative
• Ability to sequence the steps in the self-empowerment model
• Proper use of the self-empowerment model
• Identifying professional strengths and areas for development
• Recognising relevant choices for professional development
• Demonstrating initiative and self-empowerment at work
• Developing a growth mindset
• Recognising the characteristics of a growth mindset
• Understanding the steps that promote a growth mindset
• Identifying key habits that foster a long-term growth mindset
• Recognising key characteristics that signify a growth mindset exists within the workplace culture
• Identifying actions that encourage a growth mindset in daily work life

Career Success & the Growth Mindset

Mindset is what sets people back or sets them up for a lifetime of career (and personal) success! Whether it’s career progression, starting your own business or parenting – all challenging, let’s be honest – mindset is everything. It’s not about how good you are but how good you want to be.

Success in almost every area of your professional and personal life is influenced by how you think. So, when you adopt a growth mindset, one that embraces failure as a learning opportunity, you set yourself up for career success.

How to Cultivate a Growth Mindset

• Acknowledge your limitations.
• Mantra … ‘I can’t do this, yet.’ Learning is a lifelong endeavour.
• Embrace imperfection (none of us is perfect).
• Develop child-like curiosity. Ask lots of questions…. you’ll be surprised how much you can learn from others.
• Look at mistakes and failure as opportunities for growth.
• Be optimistic – the glass is half full!
• Have self-belief.
• Take action!

 

10 Ways to Project a Professional Image

A professional image is important to build a positive reputation, which leads to career success, and there are many ways you can create it!

#1 – Dress Appropriately  

Did you know that people make first impression judgements in the first seven seconds of meeting you – and some studies report it’s just a tenth of a second to determine traits like trustworthiness? So, how you present your self is important to your professional image and reputation. There are even colours that can help you land job interviews, according to some experts!

#2 – Keep Your Personal Life Private

Employers will not be thrilled if your personal life spills over into your professional life, especially if it affects your work quality. Likewise, no one likes office gossip, so be careful about what you share with others in the workplace.

Set boundaries around what you feel comfortable sharing with colleagues and don’t feel you have to partake in a conversation if it makes you uncomfortable.

#3 – Always Be Respectful   

A respectful attitude should always be expected in any workplace. Always treat people the way you want to be treated. You can’t go wrong if you live by this philosophy. You can demonstrate respect in the workplace by communicating in a polite matter. It’s also important to offer praise more than you provide criticism.

#4 – Keep Your Commitments  

Don’t break your work commitments, your career success depends on it! You will develop trust with colleagues if you keep your promises. This may mean that you’ll have to be realistic in your ability to produce work or attend meetings. A good mantra is ‘under-promise and over-deliver!’

#5 – Admit When You Need Help

You don’t know everything – and that’s okay. Professionals admit when they need help, which brings us back to that growth mindset of accepting limitations and learning from mistakes. It may seem counterintuitive, but you project a more professional image when you are comfortable admitting your shortcomings!

#6 – Be a Problem-Solver!  

Do you look for problems, or do you solve them? If you want to project a professional image, you should always take a proactive, positive approach to problems in the workplace.

# 7 – Be Organised

An organised, professional life makes career success possible. For one thing, you’ll save time, and time is at a premium in most people’s lives. An organised desk, office and project management projects that all-important professional image!

# 8 – Be Ahead of the Developments in Your Industry

Knowledge is the power they say, and they’re right. What better way to project a professional image than being knowledgeable about your job and the developments in your industry? Sign up for any e-newsletters, podcasts or courses that will help you develop professionally.

# 9 – Always Do Your Best Work

If something’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly! Excuse the use of cliché, but this is another universal truth. If you don’t give it 100 per cent, your professional image becomes tarnished. It helps if you have a passion for the project at hand, but not all work is rewarding all the time. This is where your persistence will pay dividends for your professionalism!

#10 – Sharpen Your Social Skills

Are you emotionally intelligent, or is this an area where you can improve? Today emotional intelligence is widely accepted as a key indicator of career success. So sharpen those social skills by taking a genuine interest in others.

 

Do you need help to develop the skills for career success? Learn a range of career-boosting tips and tricks in our Managing Yourself for Success program!