What it means to be a success

How is success measured? Happiness. Achievement. Influence. Cash. However it's measured, it surely takes more than luck to come by. Success is almost always hard-earned. Yet the journey begins with a step. The first step toward success is confidence — belief in your ability to? Succeed. Keep confident, whether working or looking for work.

Work Attitudes

Good relations with supervisors and other employees, or rapport, shows a positive attitude toward work. Several related attitudes are especially important on the job: conformity, cooperation, and competition.

Conformity

Conformity involves how well an individual is suited to any group — social, cultural, or economic. In the case of a business, for example, there may be rules for dress. Sometimes such policies may be found in a company procedures manual. You need both to be properly dressed and to keep fit. Why? First, to make good impression on your boss, co-workers, and customers.Second, to feel confident in your team. Third, to be always energetic and to maintain your image that is necessary for your career. How to achieve it? First, you have to refuse from your harmful habits (alcohol drinking, smoking). Second, to eat regularly and in time is much better than to stick to a diet. Third, you should at least twice a week attend a fitness center or a swimming pool and to prefer active forms of resting to passive ones. It does not matter whether you do that alone, with your friends or co-workers. You can attend sport clubs or fitness centers after work or at weekends. It is necessary both for your energy maintenance and for your job career.

More often, however, conformity takes less obvious forms. Conformity might involve acting in an expected way that has never formally been demonstrated or discussed, such as treating customers with respect, for instance.

Cooperation

Working together and getting along with others is called cooperation. Cooperation builds friendships. Once you have cooperated with others, they are likely to cooperate with you. Cooperation depends on the ability to communicate with others, even at difficult moments. It is not always easy — for instance, when a supervisor makes a questionable decision, a decision with which you do not agree.

Cooperation, however, is part of keeping a worthwhile job; it is also an important step toward getting a better one. Gaining the cooperation of others is a key role of supervisors and managers. As a supervisor yourself, earning the cooperation of other employees may become the key to your success.

Competition

Everyone can face competition in their lives. For example, you have been a typist at a company for three years. An opening occurs for a promotion to a higher position. You apply and are considered, but do not get the job. It is given to a co-worker who was more recently hired and younger than you are. How will you speak to your supervisor about your feelings? Will you express your disappointment?

Will you request an explanation of the decision? Will you mention that you had more experience than others? Anyway, make it clear to your supervisor that you will continue to cooperate. Fair competition is a normal phenomenon in business. Live and learn, and next time you will be a success!

Mental health

Our mental health is not less important than the physical one. Let us imagine the situation. The call is long distance. The caller is speaking quickly. She seems to be upset about something, but the connection is weak. You can hardly hear her.

— Madam, could you please speak up.

— I am speaking up.

— I can hardly hear you. Would you mind dialing again?

— I certainly won't call again. This is long distance! Your boss is beginning to look impatient. This is no time to make a mistake. He signs and bites her lower lip. You can tell by the caller's short answers that she is becoming unhappy too. Let's hope that this situation will never happen to you. Sometimes there can be real pressure on the job, especially when dealing with several tasks at once. Keeping your cool and staying composed make life easier. Keeping you cool may not solve all your problems, but it should keep things from getting out of hand.

 

Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1.How do you get on with other people?

2.Do you find you can trust people?

3.Do you often lose your temper?

4Have you usually got lots of energy?

5.Do you dislike being what to do?

 

Текст 4

Interoffice Communication

Being on the job calls for interacting constantly with co-workers. Many jobs also include contact with people outside of the organization. Communication between organizations takes place in various ways. Corresponding by mail, talking by phone, and speaking in person each calls for clear communication of information, opinions, and attitudes. Recognizing the attitudes and values of people of other cultural backgrounds makes it easier to communicate or work together. After all, it is not necessary to abandon your personal beliefs to respect others, even when their thinking does not agree completely with your own. We all face various cultural backgrounds and styles of conduct at work. One may classify them in different ways. Here we are presenting one of the classifications.

The Superfriendlies

Superfriendlies try to get along with everyone and try to be nice at all costs. They do not make trouble and get very nervous when they see people arguing or fighting. They value relationship above all else and are quite willing to sacrifice achievement for harmony. They go out of their way to maintain peace in a group even if it is a false peace.

They will often allow themselves to be exploited and will not speak up even if accused unjustly. They cannot deal with the idea that someone may not like them or even be mad of them. They are quite willing to give up their own desires and give in to the desires of others as long as it means acceptance by the group. Their motto is «Peace at any cost.»

The Tough Guys

Tough guys (including women) enjoy a good fight and love to argue about problems and issues. When they have their mind set on accomplishing a particular achievement, they work toward that goal with a single-minded effort that astounds their co-workers. They sacrifice a great deal to be a winner. It does not matter to them whether other people like them or agree with their tactics. In their struggle for power, they show very little concern for the feelings of others and often yell or shout when things don't go their way. They seldom regret sacrificing friendship for success. Their motto is: «Winning isn't the only thing. It's everything.”

The Experts

Experts set themselves up as authorities on any matter — technical, social, or political. They seem to have all the answers and enjoy making suggestions. They are very happy to give advice on any problem and do not mind sharing their vast knowledge with their co-workers. Their motto is: «Ask me anything; I'll give you the answer.»

The Logical Problem Solvers

Logical problem solvers concentrate on tasks instead of on people. Often they don't understand why some employees are having problems with each other. To the logical problem solvers, emotional problems are not «real» and feelings don't matter in a business environment. They prefer to see all problems from an intellectual point of view and try to find a logical solution to any conflict. Their motto is: «There seems to be no logical basis for emotional conflict.»

The Pessimists

Pessimists always expect the worst. They don't believe in luck and try to prepare for negative results. They dampen spirits when co-workers start to get excited about the idea or when enthusiasm runs high. Generally they would not be surprised if the company went out of business and everyone got fired. Their motto is: «It won't work.»

The Pollyannas

Pollyannas look at the world through rose-coloured glasses. They keep hoping that everything will turn out well despite many signs to the contrary. They try to keep morale -high by telling everyone that things will get better. They tend to smile a lot. They are sure that they will be happy and successful even if they don't deserve to be. Their motto is: «lt'll all work out. No problem.”

The Complainers

Complainers enjoy griping. Nothing is ever good enough for them. In their mind, all the bosses are too demanding and the company is trying to cheat everyone. They complain that co-workers are either too lazy and not carrying their load or compulsive about their work and trying to impress their superiors. The temperature in their office is 69 either too hot or too cold. Their motto is: «This place stinks.»

The Indecisive

Indecisive people have a hard time making up their minds. They put off making any decision for fear it might be a wrong one. When given a new responsibility, they continue to ask everyone for advice long after they should have mastered the task. They are so afraid of making a mistake that they will take forever to finish a project. Their motto is: «You can't be too careful.»

The Middle of the Roaders

Middle of the readers look for the middle ground in any conflict. They try to find a compromise for any position and feel that no matter what the situation, each side should be gaining something. Often as a result of these compromises, neither group wins anything and both may lose.

 

Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1.Which style would be the most effective in a business setting? (in a social setting)

2.Which style would be the most distractive in a business setting? (in a social setting)

3.Which type of boss would you prefer to have?

4.What type of employees would you fire?

 

Текст 5

WORK ATTITUDES

When a customer asks a difficult question, sometimes Americans reply with a humorous expression: «I only work here.» This expression leans: I am not the owner or the manager, just an employee. Unfortunately, it can also indicate that a person is not willing to help the customer of doing so involves any extra work. This chapter examines lore positive attitudes toward one's work.

Initiative

There's probably no better way to please an employer than by lowing the willingness to do a job well. One way is to work conscientiously, making sure that a job is done carefully. As the saying does, «Actions speak louder than words.» However, there are many ways to communicate a positive attitude toward a job such as listening attentively to instructions and asking questions whenever necessary, also showing initiative. Initiative means being ready to do a little more than your own job. Initiative means being ready to do things that need| be done, without being told to do them. Initiative means arriving on tin ready to work. Initiative means working as carefully and quickly as possible

Dependability

Commitment to work is an attitude deeply rooted in many cultures.! Commitment to job responsibilities comes from the belief that a good person is hard-working. This idea has been held by cultures in Europe, Asia, America and elsewhere for centuries. In some cases it was connected; to religious beliefs. The belief that working hard is a personal virtue survives in most countries to this day.

An employee shows commitment to the job in many ways. One way is keeping to the schedule. Working more is fine; working less is not. Keeping to the schedule faithfully is called dependability. Dependability involves several attitudes. One of these attitudes is honesty: speaking truthfully and not cheating the employee in any way. A related attitude is loyalty, which is shown by speaking well of the organization and the job.

Sometimes an employee can get by with little or no extra effort.

However, a negative attitude is shown when an employee is uninterested or unwilling to do a fair share of work, A person who seems lazy is not very valuable to an organization; Such as employee is unlikely to receive promotions and may lose the job. On the other hand, positive attitudes earn real rewards.

Accepting Corrections and Criticism

It is normal for people to feel uncomfortable about being judged on the job. Most people don't like being judged or evaluated by others. Like bad wine, criticism is hard to swallow. While some supervisors give correction in a friendly way, others do not. Yet directions, even when given firmly, are only meant to help get the job done. After all, only work is criticized — not the worker — and the work can be improved. Criticism is easier to accept when not taken personally.

When one instructor teaches many students for months at a time, it is not easy to be completely objective in grading. Just as a teacher | must carefully establish criteria by which students are evaluated, so too; a supervisor must carefully follow criteria for evaluating personnel.

Criteria refers to the standard or measure by which we evaluate the performance of others. If, for example, salespeople are evaluated in terms of how many units they sell, units of sale are the criteria by which they are measured. If, however, they are measured in terms of their amount of sales in dollars (rather than units), then sales dollars becomes the criteria of evaluation.

Conflict Management: «What's the problem? ”

In any employment situation some amount of tension, frustration, or even conflict can be considered normal. There are many types of conflict. Some are related to the nature of the work itself. All too often, however, conflicts are related not to the work but rather to various social or even cultural factors. Sometimes conflicts are related to breakdowns in communication, but they can also occur when people understand each other very well. If people do not share the same views of goals, conflicts may be inevitable no matter how well they communicate. At times employees have personality clashes and fail to get along. Although it is best to resolve conflicts whenever possible, many times conflicts cannot be avoided. When you find yourself in a situation where a conflict is unavoidable, it is best to learn to develop strategies to manage it.

Various types of conflict

It is not only what we communicate that is important, but also how we communicate it. In a multi cultural work environment some degree of conflict and misunderstanding is unavoidable. This is so because values, beliefs, and attitudes in one culture are often very different from those held in another. Some cultural conflicts are also caused because there are different expectations about how people should speak, behave, or make decisions.

Many conflicts can be related to unclear chains of command. Imagine how you might feel if your immediate supervisor had given you one assignment, and a little later his boss, whom you normally do not report to, were to come and ask you to do something else. Actually, in this case, your boss's boss would not have shown proper respect for the normal lines of communication. However, given her position in I the organizational hierarchy (two levels above you), you would still have to exercise care in dealing with the conflict in instructions since both bosses would have more authority than you.

 

Ответьте на вопросы к тексту:

1. What does initiative mean?

2. How do you understand commitment to work?

3. What is the best advice for conflict management?

⇐ Предыдущая12131415161718192021Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: