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Succeeding the Natural Way

Getting ahead needn’t be a complicated, contrived process of scheming and manipulation your way to the top. It can be as simple and natural as "doing the right thing." Here are some tips on how to succeed in business the natural way.

• Develop a reputation for kindness. Genuinely caring about the needs of others—customer, supervisors, direct reports and co-corkers alike—is a powerful key to success.
• Keep your ego in check. Be willing to put aside your agenda in the service of mutual goals.
• Remain positive. Resist the impulse to get entwined in the office grapevine. Instead of complaining, try to look at negative situations another way, and make a point to say positive things about people, instead of joining in on office feuds.
• Work Hard. Your first priority should be to do the best you can to meet your goals and those of the organization you work for. Office politics, your boss’s mood, and petty indignities will usually take care of themselves, if you overlook them.
• Conduct yourself with class. Even if making off-color jokes and using humor at others’ expense are a part of your workplace, abstaining from them will bring you respect. While it may feel as if you don’t fit in, you will never regret having a reputation for classiness.
• Keep your word. Don’t make commitments you can’t keep. Consider verbal promises as contracts and write them down to ensure they’re fulfilled. While it sometimes may seem as if bending the truth, playing office politics, and undercutting others will help you get ahead, you’re much better off conducting yourself with honesty and integrity. Not only will you build a firm foundation for success, you’ll also find it’s easier to live with yourself during the day and to sleep well at night!

  

  
  Most recent revision June 07, 2007