Guy Kawasaki redux: The 9 biggest myths of the workplace
Guy asked for more material from me for his blog. So I wrote up a list of the biggest workplace myths. Here is my favorite:
Myth #9: Create the shiny brand of you!
There is no magic formula to having a great career except to be you. Really you. Know who you are and have the humility to understand that self-knowledge is a never-ending journey. Figure out how to do what you love, and you’ll be great at it. Offer your true, good-natured self to other people and you’ll have a great network. Those who stand out as leaders have a notable authenticity that enables them to make genuinely meaningful connections with a wide range of people. Authenticity is a tool for changing the world by doing good.
Go to Guy Kawasaki’s blog, How to Change the World, for the whole list.
Congratulations, Penelope! I love Guy’s blog – though not as much as yours – and I hope this wins you lots more well-deserved exposure.
Here is my calculation:-
Total hrs in a week = 168
InActive hrs = 68 (see #a, approx)
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Active hrs in a week = 100
Time spent at office = 45 (see #b)
Addition Time spent on office task = 10 (emails, phone etc)
Spending time colleagues = 10 (going out, pizza time, play etc)
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Total Active Office hrs -> 65
65% of your time is related to your workplace (accept it or not) so it is very important to be at a right work place. I may not agree with some of the myths
1) You'll be happier if you have a job you like (this is general rule some can be exception but it certainly helps). Recently at our office party we had a music troop. We were so busy with our own talking that we hardly gave any attention to the troop but one musician was enjoying his work and was very happy when others were looking at us with a very unhappy smiley.
2) Job hopping is good but job hopping attitude can create unhappiness. See the video at ted.com, paradoxes of choices.
5) Do good work, and you'll do fine. -> Do Smart work, there is a small difference between smart work and good work, smart work involves you as well.
6) You need a good resume. -> May be you need a better blog :)
8) Work hard and good things will come. -> This is true but not in a shorten period of run, in longer period you will see this as a truth of life than myth.
9) Create the shiny brand of you! -> Me, me and me is not always good. Do take special care of character over the personality (brand), I keep corrected my mistakes at character level and that results in a better brand. One of my recent Interview became a lecture on DNS, the candidate still visits my blog and sends me email :).
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Reference
#a) Inactive hrs -> (6 hrs sleep + 2 hrs journey + 1 hr for other misc use)
#b) 9 per day on an average
10 hours for calls/email and 10 to hang out with coworkers?
No thanks.
If it is work related – those calls/emails/fax/whatever happens in those 40 hours.
If I want to hang out with coworkers – that is not work time, it’s rec time – however , I choose to keep my work and private life separate. There are some coworkers that I hang out with, but not always, and not that much per week.
That’s a good list.
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No. 2 is very true, but not just for the reasons you’ve listed. For the job-hopper, it’s an enormous confidence shot in the arm: to be capable of walking out of one position and into another, a process as addling as moving house, and to *choose* to do it (for the right reasons, level-headedly) is a nicely healthy ego-boost. If it goes wrong – there’s the confidence of being able to do it again until it goes right.
It’s also great for staying fresh and alert at work. It’s like a kind of self-enforced promotion, forcing you to re-learn and re-habitualise.
Job-hopping suits my lifestyle but it’s also been a boon for becoming flexible enough to do it at a higher and higher level as time goes on. Jumping between rungs of different ladders, if you like.
It’s also a lot of fun!
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I *really* like your no 8. It’s also the antidote to competitive martyrdom. :)