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Tag Archives: Personal Branding

How to be a rock star at your workplace?


SuccessHave you ever felt unable to get your point across at your workplace? Or have you ever wondered why people don’t take you seriously at work? Not everyone feels that way, but if you do, then please read on. Recently, one of my friend talked to me about her insecurities at work, and how she can’t seem to perform well at her work due to her insecurities. So, I thought of writing this blog which can help many people like her to become a rock star at their workplace.

Give credit to yourself: If you don’t credit yourself for your work, then why do you think others will. I understand, many folks are honestly intimidated by large crowds and their superiors. But there is nothing wrong with giving yourself some credit on the work that you have already done. By publicizing your work to your superiors and decision makers, you are not doing anything wrong, you are just providing them with some facts about your work. If you develop a habit of advertising the work that you (or your team) does, then when impacts to potential strategies are being discussed, I am sure that your name will pop-up as the subject matter expert (SME).

Be positive: By being positive, I am not telling you to agree with all the decisions that are being made at your work place, but I am rather recommending you to change your perspective towards how you see things. If you want to be seen as a collaborative problem solver, and not as someone who has to be “convinced” all the time, then please try using phrases like – “Sure that sounds interesting. Let me do some research and get back to you” instead of using phrases like – “No, we can’t do that”. In this way, you are aligning yourself with the crowd instead of setting yourself up as a roadblock, all without being a yes-man.

Build trust: This is easier said than done. Building trust is a long process. You can’t force someone to trust you. You need to demonstrate your integrity to your coworkers to build the trust relationship between you and them. Thus, you should always try to be transparent with your coworkers. Try not to participate in any gossip or spread rumors about decisions that are not done deals; likewise do not divulge confidential information. How many times have you heard rumors about a strategic decision being made that in the end was not true? If you want to earn people’s trust then then you need to pay attention and use some discretion. Just treat others, the way you would like to be treated. Period.

I hope, my blog can help you become the next rock star at your workplace. If you have any other recommendations for my readers, then please feel free to share it here through your comments. Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on February 9, 2016 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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Where to find new content for my blog?


Blogging IdeasEven though you are super excited about the subjects that you are blogging on, you will find yourself out of ideas after certain point. I guess, that’s what happened to some of my colleagues, who started blogging with me as a part of one of our MBA class, and quit blogging after few months. Though I have continued blogging from past 3 years, the path was not that easy. On various occasions, I found myself without any major ideas to blog about, and thought of stopping to blog altogether. The issue I was having was ….. I was unable to come up with new content every time. My life is not that boring, but I work a full time job and normally interact with the same people for the same kind of work. Thus, it became challenging to find out different content for my blog. And hence, through this blog I am going to provide you with  my experience on how I overcame that situation, and how I was able to find out different content for my blog.

Keep learning: The most simplest way to keep learning is through reading. By reading different experiences and mistakes of other people, you can avoid doing the same mistakes that they have done in the past. Let’s assume, if you read an article and don’t find anything interesting to blog about, then don’t be discouraged. Now, this is the extra knowledge that you have, which you can use it anywhere. Opportunities are endless. But yeah! If you are seriously looking to expand your blog, then you might want to read the blog related materials. For example: If I were to have a photography blog, I would subscribe to different photography magazines, blogs, books, etc., and I might read photography related materials online as well. Let’s say, you are not that of a big reader, then its ok too. In this world of multimedia, you can find interesting stuff related to your blog on YouTube, Vimeo, TED Talks, etc. Yeah! You might need to develop a habit to watch these videos regularly to come up with new content, but you don’t have anything to loose here. The only thing to gain is the knowledge. 

Observe yourself: Though this is a very simplistic approach, it’s very difficult to understand. Let me explain. Few years back, I also thought that my life was boring. I was meeting the same people, and doing the same work. I had a 8-5 job, and I was happy. But it didn’t give me much content to write about. Thus, I had to depend highly on my readings, which took me a long time, since English is not my first language. But few years back, I started looking myself from an outsider’s perspective. I go home every day, and analyze my recent achievements, and how did I achieve them. Boom! With this idea in mind, I always found myself new content. From interacting with people to leading my team, I was full of content without realizing it. This approach didn’t just gave me new ideas on how I can increase my number of blogs, but it also gave me a different perspective on my work, and how I can improve what I was doing. Sometimes, it takes us self-analysis before we can look at the same problem with a different angle. 

Provide advice: As my blog became popular, and I got some reader base, lot of people started instant messaging me for advice. If you already have a blog, then you know what I mean. People asked me all sort of things from how I would resolve their situation to how they disagree with my opinion on a given blog post. Though I liked having that discussion with them, I was not utilizing those discussions to the fullest. And I quickly realized that…..if I turn these communications in to a blog post, then I will not only answer my reader’s questions, but it will be out there for everyone to read instead of just few people whom I was communicating personally. And within few weeks, it became a big success. I got few guest posts on my blog, and I was able to share some of the ideas, which I gathered from my discussions with these people. By providing advice to people through your blogs, you will not only answer their questions, but you will also get a reader base, which is interested in your specific subject.

So, next time when you think about giving up blogging, please go through these ideas. I hope, you learn from this blog, and don’t stop sharing your knowledge. By the way, do you have any other ideas through which you have found new content for your blogs? If so, please share it with me here.

Thanks – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on December 24, 2013 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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What should you not have in your online Resume?


ResumeIn my last blog post, I have provided you with some tips to create your online portfolio, but I forgot to discuss what you shouldn’t put in your online portfolio. While you want to maximize the reach of your online portfolio by putting as much information as you can to find new opportunities, there are few things that you should not put there. Following are my recommendations…….

Don’t include personal information: This goes without saying….. Never put your personal information on your website (or Blog). For example: Your age, birth date, etc. Actually, I would also recommend you to remove your birthdate from your social profile as well. There are various online data mining sites, which can collect your information from different public websites and gather all information at one place. Thus, putting key personal information out from your portfolio is a wise decision.

Don’t put private information: Let’s say, you have a PDF format of your performance reviews from your past employers, and you did a really good job there, and now you want to show that to the world. Please do yourself a favor, and DON’T DO THAT. Of course, you can carry your past performance reviews with you during your interview to strengthen your case, but it’s a really bad idea to put it for everyone to see. I would also not put any personal conversation that you had done with your Manager over the internet. Let’s say, you have many documented e-mails to prove that you did a really good job at your work, please keep a hard copy of those documents and show it during your personal interview, but don’t make it publically available.

Don’t put your company related work: Most of you must be working at some company, and most of your work must be related to the company that you worked for. You might want to include these artifacts in your online portfolio to strengthen your future employment chances, but please don’t do that right away. Please ask your employer/management, if it is ok to upload these documents online or not. Sometimes, you might be unknowingly violating any copyrights by making those documents public. So, make sure to ask your HR Department, before you make any document public. Let’s say, if all of your work is related to your company, and still you want to show that to the world, you can do that too. Edit that work, and make it as generalized as possible, and then run by HR to see if you can upload that to your website now. Once you get your employer’s approval, there is no harm in putting those artifacts on your portfolio.

Don’t put confusing documents: If you have any project documentation that you have worked on, and you want to include that in your online portfolio, then don’t do it right away. Any portfolio item that needs context and explanation to be understood is not likely to be a very powerful document in a Web-based portfolio. You can insert little text boxes that attempt to explain the relevance of the documents, and you can even try using voice-overs to explain how the documents demonstrate your important points, but it’s not the same as being there yourself and responding to questions that the viewer might have. Thus, leave out those specific documents that must be explained to communicate the message effectively.

I hope these tips will help you to create a better online presence for yourself, while controlling what goes online and what doesn’t. If you have any other ideas through which a person can control his/her online image, then please feel free to share it on my blog through your comments. Thanks. – Bhavin Gandhi

 
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Posted by on April 2, 2012 in 21st Century, Leadership, Management

 

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