Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose – author of the books TimePeace: Making peace with time – and the Book of Answers: 105 Career Critical Situations. I am a business and efficiency coach that specializes in professional development, career management, time management, and work-life balance strategies.
Today we are going to talk about How to deal with competition in the workplace.
Examples:
- Coworker was made lead to a high profile project while I was on surgery lead. When I came back I was placed on a lower profile project.
- There’s only one open lead position in the organization and I am competing against 2 other people for the job.
- My department budget only allows one person to attend this particular conference. There are 5 people in my group that are vying for the trip.
- My department gives a MVP award every year. I want to win the award, but there are 5 other people in my group.
More often than not – the feeling of competition comes from the idea of scarcity. When you believe there are only one spot on the high-profile project, one job available, and one seat on the conference table – then of course there is a feeling of competition. The face is that there will be other high-profile projects around the corner (that’s not the only one that is ever going to present itself). There will be other open positions in other departments and groups (this isn’t the last job available ever). There are other ways to get to a conference (having your department send you isn’t the only option). The MVP isn’t the only award given, your department isn’t the only one that gives out awards, and this isn’t the only year that they give it out.
To eliminate the feeling of competition – create your own opportunities.
1) Network and investigate other leads and job opportunities in other sister departments
2) Increase your value to other departments, managers, executives and clients
3) Meet with mentors and experts to get guidance on how to shore up you skill set and talent gaps to get the next high-profile project.
4) Make yourself visible to high-profile clients to eventually become their pick as a liaison.
5) Submit abstracts and papers to various conferences. When you are a speaker at the conference, your admittance is paid for by the conference. Your department budget isn’t affected.
6) Offer to assist the marketing or sales departments to create additional opportunities for yourself.
7) Publicize and clarify your goals to allow others to keep an eye and ear out for you.
The Personal Business Commitment plan, the Individual Development Plan and the Individual Network Strategy workbook (all found in the IT Development Toolkit), helps you outline the steps to accomplish the above.
Bottom line – There’s rarely only one way to succeed. Get yourself out of the competition mode by realizing that you don’t only have 1 bite of the 1 apple. Focus on your ultimate goal.
For example – If your goal is to get to the conference, then the goal is to get to the conference. It’s not to get your department to pay for your conference expenses.
Your goal is to be considered a valuable employee and eventually lead on a high-profile project. It’s not to be the lead on this particular high-profile project.
Once you focus on your real goal, additional alternative routes appear. Others will continue to focus on the more obvious routes. But if you focus on the path less traveled, you will eliminate much competition.
The IT Professional Development Toolkit, goes into the who, what, where, when, why and how to accomplish all of the above. The IT Professional Development Toolkit is covers a comprehensive set of development tools and techniques in less than 10 minutes per practice. It contains audios, videos, articles, webinars, presentations and practice exercises designed to be less than 5-8 minutes in length. It can be used as a reference platform or a 12 week course program.
The toolkit comes in two forms: DVD and online eLearning program.
For more information about the toolkit, click on the above buttons or please go to my website at www.lauraleerose.com
Or sign up for my weekly Time and Career Management Newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/