Branding yourself as a team player can help you create the life and career success you deserve. If you listened to their post-game comments, the New York Giants — who won the Super Bowl on Sunday — are a group of team oriented guys. Teamwork is as important in business as it is on the football field. Teamwork requires flexibility. Flexibility requires that you be willing to suspend your point of view to learn about what others think. Be open to changing your mind. Be a great team player. Be flexible.

Successful people brand themselves as polished professionals. They create positive personal impact. You can create positive personal impact by becoming known as a gracious person. Follow the career advice in Tweet 73 in Success Tweets. “Be gracious. Know and follow the basic rules of etiquette. Everybody likes to be around polite and mannerly people.” Small things – like saying “please” and “thank you,” smiling at others, taking a second to hold a door for someone who has an arm-full of packages, allowing someone to cut in front of you in traffic – are the marks of gracious people. A strong personal brand also helps create positive impact. If you build your personal brand on gracious and ethical behavior, you will be well on your way to your life and career success.

There are two career success coach points for dealing with a difficult boss here. Both are common sense. First, take responsibility for yourself. Tell your boss how you feel. Don’t let him or her do things that make your life unpleasant. Second, stand up for yourself in an assertive, non-aggressive way. Follow the career advice in Tweet 133 in Success Tweets. “Resolve conflict positively. Treat conflict as an opportunity to strengthen, not destroy, the relationships you’ve worked hard to build.” Conflict can destroy relationships – and it can strengthen them. When you find yourself in conflict with another person – especially our boss — choose to see it as an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with him or her. The career advice here is simple. Resolve conflict with your boss by acting in a positive, proactive and assertive manner.

Successful people are adept at building strong relationships. They understand and use the career advice in Tweet 127 in Success Tweets. “Pay it forward. Build relationships by giving with no expectation of return. Give of yourself to build strong relationships.” Reaching out to lonely or isolated colleagues is one way of paying it forward — and is the opposite of quid pro quo. When you go first – reach out to someone or give of yourself to help someone else, with no expectations of return – you are laying the foundation for a successful relationship. When you wait for people to reach out to you, or to reciprocate a good deed by another person, you are engaging in quid pro quo behavior that usually results in lost relationship opportunities. Do yourself a favor, follow this career advice when it comes to relationship building – pay it forward. You’ll be helping yourself – and others around you.

Requests to do a guest post for this career success blog are very gratifying to me. They mean that somebody is paying attention to what I have to say and thinks that others are too. The other day I received an offer from the folks at www.college.com to do a guest post. I suggested that they write about how to make a good first impression when starting a new job. Here’s what they have to say…

Successful people are great presenters. As Tweet 115 in Success Tweets says, “Become an excellent presenter. Careers have been made on the strength of one or two great presentations.” Stories make presentations come alive. They are not difficult to create. Follow my 1 – 2 – 3 formula for creating and telling great stories. First, identify your truth – something that in your heart of hearts you know to be “true.” Second, think of the critical experiences you’ve had that have led you to this “truth.” Third, shape those experiences into a story that you can tell at the drop of a hat.

While good performance is not enough to guarantee your life and career success, it is a necessary component of your success plan. A healthy lifestyle will make it easier for you to become a top performer. You don’t have to become a fitness fanatic to be a high performer. However, eating well and exercising will keep you sharp and on top of your game. It will keep your stress in check. And while a little stress is a good thing, too much stress can knock you out of the game.

Successful people seek out inspiration and life and career success advice. One of the best ways to do this is to read books like Rodolfo Costa’s “Advice My Parents Gave Me and Other Lessons I Learned from My Mistakes.” Once you find inspiration or advice take some time to think. Figure out how that inspiration and advice applies to you. Then do something. Take positive action to help you move toward your life and career success.

Here are two ways to resolve conflict in a manner that strengthens, rather than destroys relationships you have worked hard to build. First, take responsibility for yourself. Tell people how you feel. Don’t let others do things that make your life unpleasant. Second, stand up for yourself and resolve conflict in an assertive, non-aggressive, collaborative manner. Follow the career advice in Tweet 133 in Success Tweets. “Resolve conflict positively. Treat conflict as an opportunity to strengthen, not destroy, the relationships you’ve worked hard to build.” Conflict can destroy relationships – and it can strengthen them. When you find yourself in conflict with another person, choose to see it as an opportunity to strengthen your relationship with them. Collaborate with them to solve your joint problem. In this way, you’ll resolve conflict positively and strengthen the relationships that are key to your life and career success.

That’s my career advice on conflict resolution – and that of the Childcare Network as well. What do you think? Please take a minute to share your thoughts with us in a comment. As always, thanks for reading my daily musings on life and career success. I value you and I appreciate you.

Successful people follow the career advice in Tweet 123 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. T H I N K before you speak. Focus sending positive micro messages – the small things 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.