In my last post I discussed how to capitalize on some career enhancing moments and shine at workplace. These moments are rare to get at workplace and you just can’t afford to let them go. So be confident, energetic and comfortable while dealing with such situations.
Follow certain rules so that you not only become confident and comfortable at workplace but you go one step ahead and become the favourite among your colleagues. They are:
Be friendly – Saying a hello to your fellow colleagues in the morning is a good idea. Also, enter office with a smile on your face, meet people cheerfully. Always try to be friendly and approachable. Show little interest in your colleague’s personal and professional life. ‘How is your son doing?’, ‘Heard that you have met that deadline’ etc. kind of questions can be asked.
Be polite – At workplace, you may have to encounter different kind of situations, pleasant as well as unpleasant. People may respect you, love you or even shout at you. Don’t lose your composure or get angry in such situations. They may badmouth about you, try to pull you down but don’t express your strong emotions in public. Because people may perceive you as rude and angry. This could be the roadblock in your goal of becoming favourite.
Be a conversation starter – Don’t wait for other person to come to you and say hello. Take initiative to interact with them. It’s not an ego issue you go to their desk to hello. Engage in little conversations to gain their trust and affection.
Be empathetic – To really understand your colleagues, try to see the things from their point of view as well. Be with them in their happiness, success or even sadness.
No gossiping/complaining/backstabbing – As I have discussed in my earlier blog, ‘Backstabbing at Workplace‘, the one thing you would not do in your race to become favourite is back-stab. You will not confront your opposition by unlawful ways.
Give appreciations – Congratulating colleagues for their work or meeting a deadline is a good idea. Don’t forget to appreciate people for their skills and hard work. It will get you closer to them. Even if you have to criticize someone then don’t get personal. You can read my earlier post, ‘Never get personal at workplace‘.
Be a helping hand - If you help people in their crisis moment, they will genuinely appreciate you. So whenever someone needs work related help, go for it. If you help them it will come back to you.
I hope this will make you more acceptable among your colleagues. What else rules do you follow to do the same? Share with us.
Keep your feedback coming.
You must have noticed that every now and then we get a chance to highlight our skills, abilities and earn some browney points at workplace. But most of the time we end up regretting that we could not utilize the opportunity as we could have been. May be because we did not identify the opportunity, may be because we were not ready to rock, etc. However these moments of intense activity or public limelight are our moments to enhave our career.
Most people believe that there is no such thing in the universe as, ‘Good boss’. A good boss acts as a coach/mentor and is the kind of person who help you to learn valuable new things, help you in getting more increments, promotions, guide you through your career and helps you to improve yourself personally and professionally? — In short, a boss who’s a real a guide, mentor, friend and partner?
It is almost impossible to be successful, or to learn, or to get promoted if you don’t set objectives in life. An objective is a simple one sentence mission statement that can be reasonably achieved within an expected timeframe and with available resources. 
So your colleagues are going out for gossips again this lunchtime. You don’t like that. You hate smoke, gossips, the noise, discussion about serials or analysis on yesterday’s IPL cricket match.
There is a popular saying – “what gets measured, gets reviewed and what gets reviewed, gets improved and rewarded”. Applied at the workplace, it means that to get rewarded, your work should get measured first and noticed too. At the end of the day we all want recognition of our hard work. Recognition comes when you are able to promote your skills and worth to other co-workers. There is a need to show to your colleagues and seniors about your skills and the reason why you exist in the company – whether it’s a large organization or small. You need to enhance your visibility to get more responsibility and recognition.
This post is in continuation of my earlier post, 
Appraisals are recently over. We all strive to excel in our work life along with new roles and responsibilities. We all put many efforts, do whole lot of activity, make different strategy not only to justify our present work position but also to score good in appraisal next year. Sometimes, in the race to score more over your colleague/competitors you may take away the whole credit or misrepresent facts. Because you want to establish yourself as more superior and efficient, than you actually are.
I got this as a forward in my email, today morning. I couldnot resist sharing. Though it is very funny, but at the same time reflects on the work culture specially in the IT industry. If you think you are overworked, read the following anecdote for a perspective:
One of my ex colleagues always thought of himself as a good adviser. He always liked to give unsolicited advices to everyone around. However arguably no one liked his advice and looked at him as a talkative person. In fact people stopped sharing anything with him whether its official or personal by fearing that he will start giving his ‘expert comments’. Sometime later people even stopped interacting with him, frightened with his advice/opinion.