October 19, 2010 • Volume 1, Issue 21 • ISSN: 2154-3240

In This Issue

♦	Feature Article: Think Like an Owner
♦	Ask Amanda: My boss is a stickler for accuracy. My colleagues’ inaccuracies were caught and corrected by me, and now she's getting promoted! What did I do wrong?
♦	Practical Tips: Understand Your Audience

Think Like an Owner

You are hired based on your ability to fill a specific need in the business at a particular point in time. Needs and priorities shift, and with management changes occurring on an ongoing basis it behooves you to be proactive in identifying ways you can continue to add value to your company over your tenure—and making others appropriately aware of that value. It is clear that the days of defined career paths are over. You, and only you, are in charge of creating your career strategy and aligning your needs with the needs of the company.

Discipline yourself to take some time away from your work on a daily basis to ask, “How does this meet the bigger needs of the company?”
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	We give what we need.

Practical Tips: Understand Your Audience

You are always creating/reinforcing other people’s perceptions of yourself. Stay cognizant of how you’re coming across by following these tips:

Build Rapport
Learning to appreciate and understand other people helps you understand what really motivates them. Not only does this make work a much more enjoyable experience, but understanding their point of view will also make your interactions with others much more productive.
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My boss is a stickler for accuracy. One of my colleagues is notorious for typos and other inaccuracies, which I've always caught and corrected. Now she's getting promoted because of her "outstanding" work product. What did I do wrong? J.U., Nashville, TN

You clearly value excellence, which is why you expanded the scope of your responsibility to include correcting your colleagues’ mistakes. By doing so, you disguised an issue in the business, enabled your colleague, and took on additional work. Based on how you stated your question, it seems as though you did this all on your own initiative.
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		Recommended Resources Strategic Holiday Partying 101 is the topic of our next free call. If you’d like to learn how to advance your career and have fun, learn more at www.takingcontrolofyourcareer.com

About Us: Our Corporate Life LLC (OCL) is a company that offers a new system for reducing unnecessary workplace suffering caused by the organizational, interpersonal, and ethical issues of our time. It is founded on the belief that adhering to core human values and achieving business success are always compatible. Working with both companies and individuals, OCL helps create solutions that enable corporate employees at every level to optimize profits while enabling them to thrive in the corporate environment. OCL was founded by Amanda Mitchell to help meet the needs of people working in corporate America during this transformative moment in our nation’s history. The OCL system reflects her experience and insight gained from a 20-year corporate career working with Fortune 500 companies, and as an executive coach to senior-level corporate executives.