My new career success coach book Success Tweets: 140 Bits of Common Sense Career Success Advice, All in 140 Characters or Less has gone into is third printing. Over 1,000 people have downloaded the free eBook version and several people have purchased multiple copies of the hard copy book. I think it’s a great addition to my career advice writings. Go to www.SuccessTweets.com to get a .pdf of Success Tweets for free.
If you want to purchase a hard copy for yourself – or two or three to give to friends, associates, people you mentor, people you manage, your kids, your grandkids – go to Amazon.com or send me an email at Bud@BudBilanich.com. I’ll send you quantity pricing information.
Today’s career advice comes from Tweet 123…
Use every social interaction to build and strengthen relationships. Strong relationships are your ticket to success.
I have found that little things make for strong relationships. In other words, sweat the small stuff. It’s the small stuff that will help you build and maintain strong, lasting, mutually beneficial relationships with other people who can help you create the life and career success you want and deserve.
A couple of years ago, I had an opportunity to preview a great DVD on relationship building called Little Things Mean a Lot. The DVD is based on the work of Brigid Moynahan, founder of The Next level Inc. She is a well known and highly recognized speaker and trainer.
Ms. Moynahan says that when it comes to relationships, it’s important to pay attention at all times. She says that we send micro messages in all of our interaction with other people. Micro-messages are the signals we send to one another through our behavior. While micro-messages are often small, their impact can be enormous.
Micro messages can help or hinder your relationship building efforts. Micro-affirmations help you build and maintain strong relationships. Micro-inequities hinder your ability to build and maintain strong relationships.
These are important concepts that deserve a closer look.
- Micro-affirmations are micro-messages that we send to other people that cause them to feel valued, included, or encouraged.
- Micro-inequities are micro-messages that we send to other people that cause them to feel devalued, slighted, discouraged or excluded.
Here’s some great career advice. Consciously avoid micro-inequities and consciously send micro-affirmations.
Ms Moynahan puts a diversity spin on her work. While I agree that moving from an organizational culture based on micro-inequities to one based on micro-affirmations will build a more inclusive – and thereby productive and profitable – organization, I also believe there are life and career success lessons to be learned here.
Ask yourself, “When do I feel excluded, disrespected and devalued?” In most of these cases, you have been the recipient of a micro-inequity.
The way you feel when you experience a micro-inequity is the way others are likely to feel when you engage in micro-inequity behavior. That means you should avoid using these behaviors in your interactions with others.
Then do just the opposite. Ask yourself, “When do I feel included, respected and valued?” In most of these cases, you will have been the recipient of a micro-affirmation. Work hard to incorporate behaviors that are micro-affirmations into your daily interactions with others.
In short, when you focus on sending micro-affirmations and avoiding micro-inequities, you will be better able to build solid, lasting relationships with the people in your life. And strong relationships are an important key to your life and career success.
The common sense career success coach point here is simple. Successful people are competent in four areas: 1) creating positive personal impact; 2) consistent high performance; 3) dynamic communication; and 4) interpersonal competence. Interpersonally competent people build strong relationships with the important people in their lives. They follow the career advice in Tweet 122 in Success Tweets. “Use every social interaction to build and strengthen relationships. Strong relationships are your ticket to success.” Build and strengthen relationships by sweating the small stuff. Focus sending positive micro messages – the small things you do that show another person that you value him or her. Avoid “micro-inequities” – behaviors that demean people in small ways. Instead, focus on “micro-affirmations” – behaviors that encourage others and build their self esteem.
That’s my take on the career advice in Success Tweet 123 and on micro messages. What’s yours? Please take a few minutes to leave a comment sharing your thoughts with us. As always, thanks for reading.
Bud
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