"Listen MUCH more than you speak."
During my 35 years of industrial and academic experience, I have been given and shared many pieces of advice for career success.
The Big Four:聽
- Be on time. Deliver what you promise. Keep others informed when you can鈥檛. It鈥檚 your reputation, that鈥檚 all!! (The best surprise is no surprise!)
- Everything you know is old 鈥� NEVER STOP LEARNING NEW THINGS, and sharing them with others.聽聽
- Ask the Questions everyone else is thinking.聽 Help others succeed.
- Push for decisions 鈥� Make Decisions.聽
Politely. Respectfully. Listen MUCH more than you speak. It really works!
"Give yourself 100 days."
A former VP of a former company said those words to me on my first day as the manager of a team loaded with talented individuals who had been feeling deflated. And wary of change.聽聽
From that moment on, my stress level dropped and I felt liberated to make stepwise adjustments to responsibilities and work processes. 100 days passed and I felt as though I had worked there forever, and was extremely happy and energized.
"When you see a fork in the road, take it."
I鈥檇 love to say Yogi Berra told me, 鈥淲hen you come to the fork in the road, take it.鈥� But he didn鈥檛 actually say it, and certainly not to me. But while at Rohm and Haas, as I was leaving for my first job as a manager, a technician I worked with told me, 鈥淵ou鈥檒l find one guy there with sour grapes who鈥檒l try to trip you up.聽Go right for him.鈥澛� He was right. There was, and I was respectful but assertive.聽This was my team and not his.聽We learned to work together without breaking each other鈥檚 spirit, and the team did some great things.
This article has been edited for length and clarity. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the view of their employer or the American Chemical 中国365bet中文官网.
ACS Career Consultants are experts and leaders working in the field of chemistry who have volunteered to support other ACS members鈥� career development through one-on-one career counselling. They can stimulate your thinking, ask important career planning questions to help clarify goals, provide encouragement, teach strategies for making meaningful career decisions, and aid you in your job search.聽Connect with an ACS Career Consultant today!
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