Office Personas- The Good

In my last post I discussed negative office personas, and now it's time for a few positive ones and some tips on how you can get the most out of your working relationships with these positive personas.

1. The Mom

The Mom is usually a female but is not necessarily an actual Mother in real life. The Mom goes out of her way to make sure that everyone is prepared for meetings and has the resources they need to complete projects. The Mom tends to remain on an even keel, and is generally upbeat and fun to be around. She is does not often express stress and frustration openly. The Mom is empathetic and will listen to other people's problems and offer advice where needed. Moms can be found in admin roles, HR, and occasionally middle management.

Tips on harnessing the power of The Mom:

• Tell her what you need. Moms enjoy procuring the resources and favor needed to get things done.
• Utilize her connections. The Mom is well-liked and can be your ticket to getting to know people and winning influence.
• Don't just take take take. Even The Mom needs someone to listen and care for her at times

2. The Pinch Hitter

The Pinch Hitter is the all purpose teammate that will fill in as needed and never lets the team down. The Pinch Hitter is not the type of person to refuse a job or task because "it's not his/her job." Pinch Hitters may not always want to help out with certain tasks but they know that the progress of the team is paramount. They may fly under the radar and not get the recognition that they desire, but for Pinch Hitters the public recognition is not their driving factor. Pinch Hitters thrive off of the success of the team and the relationships that they develop within the team. The Pinch Hitter is the glue that holds a team together and can be found in any space in a company.

Tips on harnessing the power of The Pinch Hitter:

• Only ask the Pinch Hitter for help when you really need it, not to lighten your work load. Pinch Hitter or not, no one likes to be used. Even The Pinch Hitter can burn out eventually.
• Thank The Pinch Hitter. Just because they don't need public recognition doesn't mean that they don't want recognition from the people they are working with closely. Relationships are very important to The Pinch Hitter and gratitude will go a long way. 

3. The Ghost

In the old Mario Kart Nintendo game there was a single player mode of the game that allowed you to race a course and then re-race it over and over following a translucent "ghost" of yourself and every time your time improved you'd follow the new faster version. Thus, in a sense the ghost was the best version of yourself. 

The Ghost on a team or in a company is the coworker you work best with- the person that is similar enough to get who you are and how you work and different enough from you to push you to be better. Ghost relationships are usually symbiotic. Hopefully, The Ghost is wherever you are in the company!

Tips on harnessing the power of The Ghost:

• Be clear about your goals and the obstacles you foresee in getting there with The Ghost so that you are both on the same page 100%. The Ghost will help get you where you're going by pushing you to do the work to get there.
• Offer to work with The Ghost on as many projects as possible.
• If The Ghost moves teams/divisions/offices/gets a promotion, etc.don't let go of your Ghost buddy. Find a way to work cross functionally in order preserve that relationship.

There are probably a million positive personas out there. Feel free to leave a comment with some of your favorites!

When "Why?" Is A Threat

As a general rule of thumb, if someone asks you why you do something the way you do it and you take it as a threat or challenge to your worth as an employee, you know what you are doing is not the best way to do it. There are some exceptions- like if the person is exceedingly rude about it, or if the Bobs are being brought in to determine if your job is necessary at your current company. But tone and Office Space references aside, "Why?" should not be threatening.

"Why?" can be the best way to determine if your activities are as efficient as they can or if they are providing value. "Why?" can be a new person's way of getting to know the job or the position. "Why?" can be your manager's way of making sure that you can be trusted to reason and problem-solve. So remember, "Why?" does not mean you're wrong.

If you get the sense deep down that "Why?" is an affront to the work you are doing or who you are as an employee, it's probably because you suspect that the person asking really means, "Why on Earth would you do it like that when you could to this instead?" It's that doubt, that suspicion that puts you on edge, and you wouldn't have that if you didn't believe that there was a better way to do what you are doing or drive value with how you are doing it.

My advice is, ask yourself why! Beat your manager, your new coworkers, etc. to the punch! Don't be afraid to answer yourself truthfully, even if it means more work for yourself. It'll be far more impressive when someone asks "Why?" you can say "Well, I evaluated the way we had been doing it previously and for reasons x, y, and z it was going to be more efficient/scalable/comprehensive/valuable/clear/etc. to do it this way" rather then "I don't know, we have always done it that way."

Win The Gold

During the Olympics my husband and I have been watching an insane amount of Olympics coverage. Being from the Northeast and growing up around these sports, we have a special fondness in our hearts for the Winter Olympics in general. One thing that struck me about this year's coverage of ski jumping was that the announcers kept reiterating that ski jumping as a sport is not particularly difficult to master physically- it is a sport featured around one simple movement. What makes ski jumping challenging and sets amateurs apart from the pros is the timing of that movement, and the strength with which it's held in the air. They explained, that the art of ski jumping is knowing when to lay out over your skis, and convincing your mind to stay there when everything inside you is telling you that you shouldn't be doing that. You are, after all, essentially jumping off a three story building chest-first to a steep snowy landing below. Convince your mind that that's totally normal and safe, and you're on your way to winning Olympic gold.

Sometimes work is like this. Sure, work is a heck of a lot safer, but there are times when your mind seems to be chanting "This doesn't matter" or "Focus on something else" or "Nothing could be more boring than this." I don't care how much you love your job, inevitably at some point you will find yourself wondering if you're making a difference, unable to focus, or trying to complete an annoyingly mundane task. (Note: If this describes the majority of your job maybe you should think about a career/job change, but for the rest of us this will happen from time to time.) It's times like this that set the regular employees (the amateurs) apart from the stellar employees (the Olympic gold medalists). Right, but how do you convince your mind that it's wrong? Just like athletes have different techniques, so too do employees. I tend to use the following tricks (the overall concepts are universal, and the examples are job-specific):

1. Break Big Tasks Into Smaller To-Dos
   
   I feel accomplished when I can cross something off, even if it's something small. I would rather have 8 small/medium-sized tasks on my to-do list than three big ones. So if I have a few major things I need to do I will spell the steps out and let myself cross them off as I go. This also helps you to think through the task and better budget your time throughout the day.
2. Look at the Bigger Picture
   Sometimes if I'm fiddling with small keyword bid changes I can get stuck in the "Does this 10 cents really matter?" trap. By aggregating that and looking at the bigger picture I can remind myself that it does matter to the company at the end of the day. If we can save 10 cents on 100 keywords, that's $10/day, or $3,650/year- on just ONE account. Sure, no one cares about $0.10, but $3,650? Now you're talking!
3. Rely on The Industry
   
   Sometimes it's easy to let yourself get away with doing less work. In my case, that would be something like "This account is small enough that match type and strength of long-tail keywords don't matter much." But, is that true or just what my mind is telling me so I can do less work? Look to the industry's opinions- industry standards would say that both match-type and long-tails are very important. Then you'll have your answer!

So get out there, conquer your mind, and win gold at work! What tricks do you use?

Nothing Is Impossible (With Excel)

My husband is the reason for this post. I don't know how we got on this topic but over dinner tonight with our neighbors I was explaining how my new favorite excel function is =COUNTIF. My husband began talking about the many uses of =COUNTIF and went off on a pivot table tangent. I stated that there was something I was trying to do at work today but I didn't think there was a way to do it in excel. My husband explained "Nothing is impossible with excel!"

As usual, he was right. I explained in detail what I was looking to do and in under 15 seconds my husband rattled off the equation I needed. Today I spent 10 minutes rearranging data to do what he could have done in a flash.

What was the most valuable thing you ever learned to do in excel?