Playing It Smart

Whether you are in the corporate world for the long term or the short term, playing it smart will help many things fall into place. It will help you thrive in your team without losing your motivation or even your sanity. Without the everyday worries damaging your motivation, you may even improve your performance and accomplish more in your day-to-day.

One of the keys to doing this is by trying to care less about the nonessentials. This includes the gossip that can float around the office, the decisions made by directors that do not resonate with you, and the changes to policies and processes that you may disagree with. Caring about nonessentials will do you no favours and may drain your motivation and hamper your accomplishments. To be motivated is to be present in the moment, turning a deaf ear to inconsequential happenings. Do your job and do it well and build a network of people around you whom care about and will help push you higher.

Only do important work and try to say no to doing the things that do not benefit you or the company. Of course, you should be nice in refusing these requests; let your teammate understand why you have chosen to focus on other projects instead. It can take some guts to do this, but it is also unreasonable to say yes to every request you are given if the work doesn’t matter to the bottom line. This is all about identifying the important work from the noise, which will help you gain better focus and a healthier balance in your work.

Attitude is everything, so watch your attitude like a hawk! Having a good attitude can improve your career track or performance, boost your reputation and while people can forget acts of kindness, they will remember incidents of poor attitude for a long time. Keep your attitude purely professional in every situation; be professional when making requests, when you are frustrated, when you are negotiating and when you are expressing changes in your plan.

Most of all, never lose your belief in the general goodness of people, no matter who you have to deal with in your career. That single approach to corporate work can help you feel proud about the exemplary character you are showcasing through your attitude.