Expect to Win: 10 Proven Strategies for Thriving in the Workplace - Softcover

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Carla Harris is a Vice Chairman, Wealth Management, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley. Harris has extensive industry experiences in the technology, media, retail, telecommunications, transportation, industrial, and healthcare sectors. She was appointed by President Barack Obama to chair the National Women’s Business Council. She is the author of Expect to Win and Strategize to Win.

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CHAPTER 1

AUTHENTICITY

The Power Is You

There is only one you!

The day your company hired you, someone else did not get the job because you were the best candidate. They hired you because you had the best combination of skills, personality, and potential and a unique blend of values and abilities. Over any other person they interviewed, the company felt that you could best execute the job, fulfill their need for talent, and satisfy their specific need for a discrete skill set. You got the job because you had a competitive advantage over all of the other candidates. That important competitive advantage? You. No one else can be you the way you can; this is your source of power within the organization.

One of the keys to your long-term success in any organization is to own the person who you really are. If you bring that original, best you to work every day, the one that interviewed for and got the job, then you can maintain your competitive advantage in the orga nization now and, more importantly, over time.

Bringing the real you to work allows you to be free! Free to learn new concepts, free to be creative and responsive, free to take risks—all of which helps to enhance the professional that you are and makes you valuable to the organization. In today’s competitive environment, the person who learns new concepts quickly, who can adapt commercially, or, in other words, can apply those lessons in a way that can make money for the firm, and who is also client-oriented, is the person who moves most quickly in a company and is most handsomely rewarded.

If you are preoccupied with trying to play a role or trying to behave, speak, or act the way you think others want you to, your mind won’t be free to perform at your highest level, be flexible, and be able to adapt to changes. Putting on an act eventually becomes exhausting and uses up valuable mental capacity that could instead be directed toward making important contributions at work.

The reason that I am such a strong advocate for being who you really are at work is that doing so gives you confidence. When you are comfortable with who you are, you exude confidence, and that’s attractive to clients and to colleagues. Others want to listen to confident people; they want to hear your ideas, they trust your judgment, and they will buy what you are selling, whether it is a product, a financing pitch, or a decision.

When you are not being who you really are, at some point you will begin to appear uncomfortable to others. Especially in client- facing businesses, such as investment banking or sales, trust in relationships is an important element of success. When you act and speak with confidence, it contributes to your performance. If you appear to be tentative or apprehensive (which usually happens when you are lacking confidence), then you open the door for your clients to doubt what you are saying, you potentially lose the opportunity to win the business, and you open the door for a competitor to get the upper hand in a relationship.

A lack of confidence can also hurt in your internal interactions as well. When you are confident with who you are, it helps you to build trust in relationships with the people you work with. Especially if your work environment is very competitive or has a relatively flat hierarchy, which also tends to intensify internal competition, then it is imperative that you have confidence in who you are and what you are doing. If you are in a competitive environment where the rule is “up or out” (either you move up within the organization over a period of time or you have to leave the organization) and your colleagues realize that you are not comfortable with who you are or in your work, then they will actively try to find ways to make you doubt yourself.

If you are constantly questioning your abilities in the workplace, then sooner or later your boss is likely to notice and their trust or belief in you will be impaired. And when your boss starts to doubt whether or not you can do the work or have the ability to sell your ideas, then you are very likely to be viewed as someone who cannot or should not move up within the organization or get the opportunity to have bigger or better clients or other responsibilities.

We all have strengths and weaknesses, gifts and talents. Have the confidence to play up yours. Be proud about what you do well and who you are. And work to improve your weaknesses whenever possible. You don’t have to wear either on your sleeve, but don’t suppress what’s good and interesting about yourself either.

Putting on an act eventually will manifest itself into appearing discontent, and if it’s at a really inopportune moment, such as when you’re presenting to an important client, it could cost you a piece of business, a new assignment, or a promotion. And if clients or colleagues feel they don’t know who you are, that you will lean any way the wind blows, they won’t fully trust you. When that happens, you have created a competitive disadvantage for yourself compared to the colleague who is confident, stands by their word, and knows who they are.

Know Who You Are

So how do you know who you are? It seems like an easy question, but many people have never really taken the time to think about it. If you haven’t, you need to ask yourself some important questions: What are your key strengths and weaknesses? Why are you in the profession that you are in? Why did you choose the firm that you chose? What are your goals at the firm, in that department, and for the specific job or seat that you are in?

You get to know who you are not only by asking these questions, but also by the experiences you have and by paying close attention to how you react in different situations and understanding why you are doing what you are doing. When you are comfortable with the decisions that you make and why you make them, then you are starting to get a handle on who you really are. Further, knowing who you are helps you to quickly identify when things go awry or when your career is veering off track, and it helps you to quickly identify solutions to remedy challenging situations. If you know who you are in an environment, where you belong, and how you fit in, then you will have the confidence to make changes or to speak up as needed to make sure that you are maximizing your success.

In order to stay focused on remaining authentic and being the best original you can be, you must first understand what your competitive strengths are and concentrate on improving your weaknesses. In any situation, you always want to both lead with your strengths and commit to making time to improve those skills that you think you need to work on. At all times, you must be able to explain why you belong in a particular position, why you deserve a promotion, why you deserve the raise or the highest tier of bonuses, or simply why you are so good at what you do.

Focusing on these questions will help you develop that all-important “elevator speech.” That’s the quick speech you need to have at the ready at all times; the one that explains to people who you are and what you want in the time it takes to go up or down the elevator. This is an important skill to develop. You never know when or where you will have the opportunity to talk to someone about your strengths and goals within a company. Therefore, you need to be clear about you, your goals, and your assets, and have your elevator speech about yourself ready to use at any time. Your power lies in putting your best self forward every day. If you are always focused on presenting your authentic self wherever you go, you will be able to automatically present a speech about yourself whenever the...