Building Successful Careers

My friend is an accomplished professional. She constantly deals with big clients. Recently, she worked on a complex business negotiation with her company's largest client. The client was very skillful in applying various negotiation skills including changing positions, escalating and blaming her for delays, renegotiating terms back and forth. She struggled through the long and unpleasant negotiation process. Finally, every party was satisfied and the deal was made. But she felt bruised inside and out. When we went to lunch to celebrate the success, she questioned if could she do better given the same case again in the future. "What's the most troublesome issue you faced?" I asked my puzzled friend. She lamented, "Communications with the client, internal business partners and my boss. Everything became convoluted, the client's negotiation techniques mixed with their hidden agenda. I was accused of being the defensive and making many excuses. Some information...

The world is an ever changing place and the pace of the change is accelerating. Holding on what we have, life style, working style, existing technology, communication style and etc is no longer realistic in this world. Our career or jobs will change at least 7 times in our lifetime. One of my friends called today and joked about the only people whose lives were not affected by this downturn in business are those on social security. I joked back, it won't be true for long when inflation hits the country. The choice is up to you: resist the change, accept the change, adapt to the change or embrace of the change. At end of the day, whether you are willing to change or not, your life is going to be different. How does one embrace the change? Positive attitude and ability to anticipate the trend enable you to embrace the change. Each week, free yourself from your daily busy work and schedule four+ hours for research and learning new things. Your research will quickly show y...

During my recent talk at Microsoft, a program manager shared her frustration on having trouble making quick decisions with very limited data, say 10-20% of data. Her manager considers this ability is one of the major indicators of professional maturity. I agree with her manager. But how can one make quick decisions with very limited data? The key is to become systematic in the decision making process. Summarize and build decision making models that take a few parameters. If you constructed many simulation models in the business world, you can change a few parameters and provide quick conclusions. Once these models become part of your thought process and part of your intuition, you can accelerate your decision making process significantly. Of course, you can always compare with incoming data and validate your conclusions again. Observe the senior people around you as they face the same challenges. Find out how they come up with quick decisions and why they think the way they do. Y...

Stress is caused by problems and issues. The best way to release stress is to write down your problems and issues, focus all your thinking and energy to discover the solution. Elizabeth Xu

Leadership Passages: The Personal and Professional Transitions That Make or Break a Leader by David Dotlich This book is for senior executives who went through life change events. It is a easy read and provides interesting suggestions for anyone who are going through any dramatic life events, such as promotions, layoffs, new job, lost loved ones, starting a company, moving to foreign country to start a new career... Publisher Comments: Predict and Survive the Make-or-Break Crises You Will Face in the Course of Your Career "Leadership Passages describes systematically that it is far more effective and compelling to build on both successes and failures, rather than trying to overlook or even ignore the valuable lessons that unavoidable adversity in both our personal and business lives can teach us." –Daniel Vasella, chairman and CEO, Novartis "If you want to succeed and have inner peace at the same time, then this book is for you." –Ram Charan, coauthor, Execution: T...

My son is an excellent baseball player; he is fast, strategic and calm under stress. This year, he is on a great team. They won the Saratoga AAA Little League Championship two weeks ago. The team advanced to the Regional Minor Tournament of Champions. Everyone was excited. The coaches and team practiced everyday. They won the first game on Saturday. They won the 2nd game on Monday. They won the 3rd game on Tuesday. Then they entered the final. It was a tough game. Luck was not on our side. Many hits were caught in mid of air, there were two questionable calls from the umpires and the team got frustrated. My son scored but the team lost the game. They are in the 2nd place. The final game wiped all recent victories, everyone felt defeated instead of enjoying the great season. I know I was one of them. My son and I walked to my car, I asked him: "How do you feel?" His face was still calm, showing neither excitement nor disappointment. "Mom, it is okay”, he said. “ I l...

The Business Style Handbook: An A-to-Z Guide for Writing on the Job with Tips from Communications Experts at the Fortune 500 (Paperback) by Helen Cunningham (Author), Brenda Greene (Author) This books is very helpful if English is your 2nd language.