Careers Advice

One can learn to be more assertive, although this does come more naturally to some people than to others.  There are of course training courses and workshops available at many colleges and education centres that are designed to help you to practise assertiveness but here are my own top 10 key tips in this respect:

• Don’t be unreasonably afraid of displeasing others; if you’re not being aggressive then this shouldn’t be an issue.
• Don’t feel that you should have to be liked by everyone; being assertive shouldn’t mean that you are disliked but the fear of being dislike can inhibit your ability to assert yourself.
• Don’t let your tone of voice rise at the end of a statement so as to make it sound like a question, communicating to the listener that you have doubts about what you’re saying.
• Don’t allow yourself to express unnecessary doubts about what you’re saying (e.g. “I may be wrong, but…”)
• Don’t apologise unnecessarily (e.g. “I’m sorry but I disagree”).  You should only be apologising if you’re at fault.  There’s no shame in disagreeing.
• Don’t let yourself feel under attack if somebody else disagrees with you.  In the workplace, it’s rarely personal.  It’s just business.
• Don’t be afraid of saying “No” when necessary and appropriate.  It’s one of the most powerful words in the English language!
• Don’t let people cut you off in the middle of what you’re saying.  Ask them politely to hear you out.
• Do stand up straight and maintain eye contact when talking to someone – and gently resting your hand on their arm can also be useful in getting them to take notice of you.
• Don’t be discouraged if you feel you handled an exchange less assertively than you should have done; recognise your failing and resolve to do better next time round.

Compelling workers to work from their employer’s premises is now a much less prevalent employer philosophy and, in your job, you may find yourself faced, possibly for the very first time, by the prospect of remote working.

I personally spend a considerable amount of time working from home.  I find I’m much more productive than in an office when it seems like every minute of every day somebody wants to interrupt me!

Here are my personal 10 top tips for working from home:

• Establish a routine.  Don’t let chaos reign.  Try to work set hours with set breaks and don’t give in to interruptions.
• Don’t allow the boundaries between your working life and your private life to become blurred.  Keep the two as separate as you can.
• Brush your teeth, have a shower, get dressed, etc. in the morning before you start work, just as if you were going to a ‘real’ office.  Get in the right frame of mind for work.
• Try to work in a completely separate room – preferably one where you can close the door (a) to keep disturbances out and (b) to keep the work in and out of sight!
• Avoid having a TV in the room where you work – and certainly avoid having the TV on whilst you work!
• You may find work more enjoyable with music in the background but make sure you turn it off whenever you are on the telephone.
• Recognise that you will be responsible for motivating yourself and maintaining self-discipline.  Make a continual conscious effort in this respect.
• Be aware that you might well suffer from feelings of loneliness and isolation.  If this is the case then take positive steps to counteract this, such as seeing friends for lunch.
• Make sure your friends and family (and maybe you too!) understand and appreciate that working from home means that you will actually be working.  It’s not a sort of semi day off!
• Don’t allow others to make you feel as if working from home doesn’t constitute real work.  Home workers often work pretty hard – and are generally highly productive.

Nerves are probably the biggest enemy you face when delivering a presentation, especially if you’re nervous enough about starting your new job anyway.  You’re up there at the front all alone with everyone staring at you!  It’s a natural instinct for you to feel threatened by this and for your body to be pumped full of adrenaline – and adrenaline isn’t your best friend when you’re trying to give a successful presentation!  It might have been useful hundreds of thousands of years ago when you were cornered by a sabre-toothed tiger but, now, it’ll just cause you to panic even more!

Here are my top 10 key tips for calming those nerves:

• Stop thinking about yourself.  Focus your attention on your audience.
• Bear in mind that the audience is on your side and that they are not your enemy
• Try to imagine you’re talking to each person individually, not as a group
• Ask rhetorical questions to reinforce the illusion that it’s a one-on-one conversation
• Have a glass of water to sip from just in case your mouth (or brain!) dries up
• Take slower, deeper breaths.  It’ll calm you down and help get more oxygen to your brain.
• Smile; it’s a natural relaxant.  And it’ll make a good impression on your audience too.
• Limit your caffeine intake; you definitely don’t want to appear overly manic…
• Visualise the end of the presentation and the round of applause you could be getting
• Ask yourself what’s the worst that could happen; after all, it’s just a presentation!