Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist. Advice at the intersection of work and life.
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Browsing category "Self-management"

Paying dues is so old school

April 15th, 2007
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One of the most important career moves of the new millennium is getting out of paying dues. Paying one's due is an antiquated idea in a workplace where few people aspire to climb the same corporate ladder for 45 years.
Eve Tahmincioglu interviewed 55 leaders for her book, From the Sandbox to the Corner Office: Lessons [...]

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If someone's bugging you, change yourself

April 10th, 2007
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Here's a fascinating piece about an Amazon tribe that has no ability to use numbers. Even when the tribe members asked anthropologists to teach counting, the tribesmen couldn't learn. The tribe is good at other things — fishing and making jokes, for instance — but not counting.
This immediately reminded me of couples therapy with my [...]

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Take an inventory of your friends, and act on it

Posted to: Self-management
March 20th, 2007
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Today people talk very loudly about how they want a job that lets them have a life outside of work. That's smart, of course, because there's a long list of scientifically proven benefits to your health and happiness that friendship brings. And this includes the findings of Gallup pollster Tim Rath that you are almost guaranteed [...]

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The long-distance relationship goes mainstream: 3 tips for survival

March 18th, 2007
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Does this courtship sound familiar to you?
"We used Instant messenger a lot. But sometimes you just want to get away from your computer, so then we'd text. But fighting while you text is so tedious you may as well just get back on IM."
This description is from Sandra Proulx, who maintained a long-distance relationship with [...]

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The one skill you need for three key areas of career growth

March 6th, 2007
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Emotional intelligence. This is how you will differentiate yourself at work in the new millennieum.
We can see the world shifting around us in response to the fact that tolerance for poor social skills is getting less and less. The need to fit in with a group on some level, is getting higher and higher, and the tendency [...]

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4 new ideas for becoming more effective at work

Posted to: Self-management
February 18th, 2007
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It used to be your workplace identity was tied to your company. "An IBM man" is a phrase that comes to mind. Companies kept track of best practices, hot management ideas, and recent innovations in the business world.
Today our identity is separate from our company. We manage ourselves with the care that used to be [...]

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Friday smorgasbord: 4 how-to's

Posted to: Self-management
February 16th, 2007
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I just want to tell you about these links. Each of them made me really happy to find. Maybe one, or all four, will make you happy:
1. How to ruin your image with your signature file.
This is a great post about the stupid fonts people use in their signature file and what those fonts mean [...]

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Strategies for a sleep-deprived workday

February 11th, 2007
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Chances are half of your colleagues at work are desperate for a nap. Many adults don't get enough sleep, according to the National Sleep Foundation, the problem particularly "acute" among younger workers: one in three struggle to get out of bed each morning.
What's keeping them up at night? Not work worries. Marie Gagnon, 24, is [...]

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Pay attention to your critics — at least some of them

February 2nd, 2007
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Take a look at my Yahoo! Finance column for this week: 239 people rated it an average of two stars out of five. Which is an improvement, because yesterday the average was one star. Also, there are 94 comments, which can be fairly represented by the one that I copy and paste here:
"I think this [...]

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Productivity tip: Face-to-face contact energizes your brain

Posted to: Productivity |  Self-management
December 26th, 2006
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The need to have regular human moments at work is similar to the need to stand up and stretch on an airplane: Your well-being depends on it. On top of that, a workday with regular face-to-face contact is more energizing than a day full of contacts exclusively via computer and phone.
So get out from behind your [...]

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Good news for job hoppers: Frequent change maintains passion

Posted to: Self-management
December 24th, 2006
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 Most people change jobs every two years, and, guess what? It's a good thing to do for your career.
The Bureau of Labor reports that people in their 20s change jobs every 18 months, and CareerJournal reports that 75 percent of all workers are job hunting. All this change has been scoffed at by people who say [...]

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Your significant other can teach you workplace skills

Posted to: Self-management
December 11th, 2006
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When I was in couples therapy with my husband, I nearly died trying to force myself to listen to his ideas when I thought mine were better. But I realized that I had poor listening skills, and by dealing with my listening skills at home, I improved my listening skills at work.
We can learn how to [...]

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Beware of burnout: Take the test

Posted to: Goal setting |  Self-management
December 4th, 2006
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Burnout is as much about your dreams as it is about your work, because burnout is the gap between your expectations and your ability to meet them. Jennifer Senior has a great article in this week's New York Magazine about about burnout, which I will quote from here.
Burnout is not about how many hours you [...]

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Take the risk of specializing in order to stand out

November 29th, 2006
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Linda Chernoff is decked out in a black, floor-length gown and heels that kill her at the end of an evening. She has the conversational skills of a socialite and team building talents of a top executive. Her résumé could start with her prized "people skills" as an entrée to almost any career, but instead, [...]

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The nuts and bolts of being nice

Posted to: Self-management
November 27th, 2006
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I write a lot about how you have to be liked to get what you want, and how people think they're more likeable than they are. So I'm always on the lookout for what it really means to be nice, and lately I have been noticing people who are getting to the top of their field [...]

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Thanksgiving is good for your career

Posted to: Self-management
November 22nd, 2006
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Thanksgiving is a good time for your career, because practicing gratitude is good for your career.
For one thing, if you write a list of what you're grateful for each day you are more likely to meet your most important personal goals, according to Robert Emmons, professor of psychology at University of California at Davis.
Susan Quandt [...]

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Why were there no blog posts this week?

Posted to: How to blog |  Self-management
November 16th, 2006
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The trick in business is to be consistent and reliable so that people trust you to deliver quality work all the time. But no one can do this all the time. Everyone hides sometimes.
I am pretty good at hiding. My specialty is doing work very fast, mostly because I am so willing to skip over [...]

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Hey, take time to vote!

Posted to: Self-management
November 7th, 2006
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It's good for your career.
 

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Knowing when to make your move

Posted to: Diversity |  Fulfillment |  Self-management
November 1st, 2006
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Just because you're adamant about making sure you have a personal life doesn’t mean you can’t be top in your field. Top is different today than it was even ten years ago. Top doesn’t mean climbing a ladder to make the most money. Top means having influence in discussions that matter to you, and having [...]

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Myths we hold about workplace stress

Posted to: Self-management
October 23rd, 2006
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Before we get to my list of ways to decrease stress, I want to debunk some myths.
First of all, stress at the workplace does not always cause unhappiness. Your workplace happiness hinges more on whether or not you like your work than on whether or not your work is stressful, according to Alan Krueger, professor [...]

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