You should be aware of these three potential career killers and, more importantly, know you can do something about them.
The things that can damage your career are obscure. They aren’t obvious and are often unknown.
Let’s say that you’re a solid employee. You turn in high-caliber work consistently and are on excellent terms with your manager. You’re the go-to person for problem-solving when your team members are stumped and come through with flying colors. Your expertise is stellar.
Shouldn’t this put you on the fast track for a promotion or minimally offer job security?
Surprisingly, this isn’t always the case.
The first career killer is when you’re too quiet at work and in meetings.
Fear of public speaking is the #1 fear of professionals at every level. Most have it to varying degrees. Some people are comfortable talking in team meetings, but when Senior Leadership ‘drops in,’ they go silent. The more senior the leadership, the greater this fear becomes for almost everyone.
Here are the two main reasons being quiet hurts you:
The first is other people get the credit for your work. Imagine that your team is presenting to Senior Leadership; This is a high-stakes moment and the most critical time for you to showcase your expertise. You ask a peer to explain your portion of the project because you want to avoid talking. How can leadership know about your efforts, contributions, and achievements?
Often this ownership mistake happens accidentally, but sometimes it is purposeful. Why take that chance?
Second, your hard work and expertise can be unknown to your manager and peers. Suppose you’re quiet at regular weekly meetings. Your team needs to know your progress, breakthroughs, and contributions, or they could incorrectly assume that you’re doing minimal work and they’re doing the ‘heavy lifting.’
It could damage your expertise and minimizes your contributions. Why risk it?
The second career killer is rambling when you’re nervous.
Imagine that Senior Leadership asks you a direct question in front of the group. You feel yourself begin to panic as your heart begins to pound and your mind starts to race. Your answer is long-winded, you feel yourself faltering, and you can tell that people don’t understand your point.
Cambridge Dictionary defines rambling as “to talk or write in a confused way for a long time Webster’s defines it as “proceeding without a specific goal, purpose, or direction.” The thesaurus uses these words to describe it: long-winded, redundant, repetitious, exaggerated, bombastic, blathering, and gassy.
Does anything above sound good?
Anyone can learn not to ramble. Yes, anyone.
Whatever your challenge: fear of speaking, extreme introvert, or not neurotypical, you can communicate succinctly and impactfully with the right tools.
The third thing that hurts your career is ‘under-sharing.’ What is ‘under-sharing,’ you ask? It’s answering a question with too little information, which doesn’t answer the question.
I worked with a Director in California whose organization serves the homeless~ they’re events could help a few or several thousand. When someone would ask her how her event went, she’d say, ‘Great!’ That’s it. ‘Great’ doesn’t answer the question. Here are some facts she could have shared:
- How many people were served hot meals? Over 7,000
- How many bags of food were distributed? 14,000+
- How many services were offered? 40+ haircuts, new clothes, counseling, and more
‘Great’ did not include critical facts and didn’t answer the question.
Here’s the general perception of ‘under-sharers. People think:
- You don’t know what you’re doing.
- Or you’re withholding information and aren’t a team player.
Here’s the thing, most people, 95%, fall into one of these categories- so if that’s you, don’t despair. Anyone can learn to be an excellent communicator with the right tools.
I used to do all of the above. I knew I rambled and so went silent. When asked a direct question that I had to answer, I’d under-share to stop talking as quickly as possible.
If I can do it, so can you! I started ExecLauncher to help people with the same struggles I once did.
Learn how you can stop struggling with communication at Top Secret Tool Takes the Headache Out Of Communication For Good | ExecLauncher