New Job People Skills: Use These Essentials | #PeopleSkills
by Kate Nasser | 4 Comments »
In my last essential people skills post, I focused on 5 steps for a successful leadership start. Now I broaden the focus to new job people skills for everyone.
Essential New Job People Skills to Start Off Right!
It’s your first day on a new job. How do you make a great first impression and contribute positively each day?
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Leave all your baggage home. Mentally prepare the night before your first day on a new job. Yes, this is part of people skills! Bring your positive attitude about people and teamwork. Leave your baggage, resentments, and scars home.
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Reach out to others and get to know them slowly. It prevents you from unwittingly being drawn into hidden office wars and cliques.
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Apply your experience without mentioning your previous job. If your previous employer was more innovative and advanced, offer new ideas without demeaning your new employer. Your new leaders, managers, and teammates want to know you’re with them. Talking about your previous employer says you want to be someplace else.
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Go in with open arms not guns blazing. Even leaders who plan to make radical changes do it through positive influence not slashing and burning everyone and everything.
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Observe how people interact. Are they very formal with each other? Are they more competitive or collaborative? See the people skills norms they use and use your new job people skills to join in.
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Ask open-ended questions. Open-ended questions show you have an open mind. They also produce more valuable info than yes/no questions.
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Listen and learn. Listening will give you the chance to absorb much of what you don’t know. It also builds tremendous bonds with others. When you listen to others you are telling them they matter and what they have to share matters. Great listening is one of the top people skills and that goes for new job people skills too.
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Spot & adapt to different personality types. Being able to see people’s natural types and adapt vs. getting annoyed with them is a large part of success. Of all the new job people skills, this is the one that has been integral to my success.
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Pay your dues without being abused. Be humble enough to learn and confident enough to contribute as an equal. This is how you show confidence and commitment without seeming weak or arrogant.
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Show accountability. Don’t play the I’m new card. When you make a mistake, don’t excuse it by saying I’m new. It sounds defensive, uncommitted, immature, and self-absorbed. Wow your new leaders, managers, and teammates with mature ownership and correct your mistake. Show them what you learned from it. It shows your integrity and value. This builds tremendous trust and respect.
Rely on your new job people skills to keep you resilient during the bumpy times of learning. People skills are the pathway to learning the unknown and contributing to other’s learning as sell.
From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™
Related Post: The 12 People Skills You Need to Succeed Without Authority
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Kate Nasser, The People Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.
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In one organization where I worked they word I think they’d use to describe their expectations for my first 30 – 100 days was “impact.” Unfortunately, the word I used to guide me was “connection.” Yes, I got things done but without relationships throughout the organization, my impact was the equivalent of dropping a small stone in a bathtub. Ultimately, I learned that I could not overcommunicate with my new bosses. It wasn’t only about the work but time for them to get used to my style and I needed to understand theirs as well. Those early days are not only about what you do but how you do it… people are watching and judging. I also learned that when my people skills were a mismatch for the org, I didn’t need to prove anything to anyone by sticking it out, I moved on.
Great read, Kate for anyone starting a new position and wanting to make a positive impact AND build connection.
Alli
Alli,
I so appreciate the real life stories you add to my blog posts. Your story today rings out with truth about the gaps that can sink us if we don’t spot them or if we can’t close them. And you are right … sometimes it is good to move on if the mismatch is just too great.
Many thanks for sharing your experience and lessons here.
Kate
Hi kate,
Great topic. Loved it. The biggest challenge is faced on a new job was to adapt to conditions, the people around me, it was the toughest, although with time, everything has gone well, during the last few years of my job, there was no issue at all.
~ Donna
Thanks Donna .. and congrats that your job is issue free!
Kate