Doing Better At The Workplace

Posted: May 30, 2012

Trawling through the archives of Women’s Web, I realized there was a wealth of information on career development. The topics ranged from cracking tricky interviews to finding alternate careers to doing better at the workplace.

Since our new readers may not have seen a lot of pieces, I’d love to share some of it with you – on tackling workplace issues and boosting professional growth.

The compilation is by no means exhaustive. But I do hope you will find it an adequate manifesto for the career woman. And a Holy Grail for the dilemmas your workplace may flummox you with.

1) How To Create Your Dream Job – There is a world of difference between having a regular job and owning a dream job. Unmana’s post effectively shows how you can bridge the gap with enterprise, dynamism and converting potentially adverse situations to your advantage.

Like the author pithily put it – “Show that you are invested in the company’s success. That you will always bring your best game. And then you might get to make some of your own rules.”

2) Why Women Need Mentors & How To Get The Best From Mentoring – Corporates have their own version of fairy god-mothers and fathers. In official parlance, they are called mentors.

Kiran Manral’s two-part article acquaints the readers with this wonderful support system that women-at-work can leverage – for career management, critical leadership, and sorting work-life balance, among other things.

3) How to handle a bad boss – Remember Hari Sadu? Of the Naukri fame? Now if you are stuck with a boss who is the bad egg in your corporate utopia, you needn’t contemplate an exodus. Jaya Narayan gives you SMART ways of steering your career in the absence of a supportive manager.

4) Dealing With Difficult Clients – The unmanageable client. Agent provocateur to work-place misery. The gremlin who compels you to rethink your ambitions and sanity! Tackling this ilk with good intentions alone wouldn’t suffice. Shweta’s post delineates a planned approach to fixing communication bottlenecks for conflict resolution.

5) Losing Out Career Due To No Socializing? & Online Networking for the Self-Employed – Two unique, women-centric posts deal with the issue of corporate relationship-building (or networking) – a vital tool to career advancement, and yet one fraught with predicament for the working woman.

Chitra Iyer’s post grapples with the problem – the viability of social engagement for a career woman beyond office hours, when the ‘call of duty’ as a mother/caregiver beckons her home.

Jyoti Bhargava’s post proffers the solution by revealing how one make up for insufficient social networking by building a powerful online presence that gives you visibility and credibility.

6) Take Charge Of Performance Reviews – Unlike life, Judgment Day is an annual affair at the workplace. It’s called job appraisal, and critically determines your future chances. Anne’s post urges you to shake off your smugness and take responsibility for your corporate scorecard.

7) Help For The First-Time Manager – With power comes responsibility. And vexation too. You suddenly find yourself alienated from erstwhile teammates who view you with grudge and hostility. Should you antagonise your peers or seek to gain acceptance as a manager? Debjani’s post guides your way out of this conundrum.

8) Wielding Power At Work – The absence of women in boardrooms is no indicator of a woman’s competence or talents. It is a reflection of popular but sexist notions of who is a better marshal of power. Thankfully, this is slowly changing.

Jaya Narayan writes an excellent post on how women can transcend personal misgivings and gender barriers to embrace strategic leadership roles with panache. A must-read for the ambitious career woman who has set her sights on the citadel!

9) Are you excited with what you do professionally? – For those besieged by a niggling disenchantment with the job, this write-up helps you with some soul-searching.

10) 10 Resolutions For The Busy Woman – Why am I recommending a post on resolutions in the middle of the year? Because, dear busy working woman, any day is good enough to start a positive, meaningful habit!