If you aspire to accelerate on the sometimes unsteady life success ladder and stay at the top, you’ll need to do a lot more than simply showing proof of good academic knowledge and a smart outlook. In addition to being top of your professional game, you must also develop good habits and social etiquettes that will keep you right ahead on success track.
How do you combine a good career and job with top social etiquettes to power your way up to the next level in life? Here’s the cheat sheet of life success skills school probably never taught you.
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Emotional intelligence could be your most powerful asset for success
While a person’s Intelligence Quotient (IQ) or conventional intelligence is an indication of their cognitive reasoning ability, it is not a sole measure of success. Rather, Emotional Quotient (EQ) or emotional intelligence has been proven to be a more accurate indicator of how successful an individual can become in life generally.
According to the definition by the Oxford Dictionary’s, emotional intelligence is “the capacity to be aware of, control and express one’s emotions, and to handle interpersonal relationships judiciously and empathetically.”
College may have taught you valuable job skills, but you’re not likely to have received any lessons in school on how to be emotionally intelligent.
An emotionally intelligent person can easily recognize their partner’s, kid’s, colleague’s, boss’s or client’s emotion; and relate to them in the most appropriate and balanced way.
Experts advise being observant if you want to develop and hone emotional intelligence. Watch how people you admire react and communicate with their peers and subordinates, including their tone and body language. As you apply these skills overtime, you’ll improve you on your Emotional Quotient (EQ).
2. Aim to be personable, not personal
It’s a good thing to connect with others outside your family circle, such as your colleagues and try to show care for them and about their personal lives. But overdoing it or giving out too much information is not good.
Let your focus be on staying friendly and being a team player with a professional outlook and a maybe a smile, rather than coming off as too chatty. Also, avoid hanging out with your co-workers all day and revealing so much about your life. As much as you can, keep conversations professional and skip on controversial topics like religion, sex and politics.
3. Learn how to manage important people in your life, especially your partner and boss
Understanding how to build a healthy relationship with your partner as well as your superiors at work is a key skill for life success. Make sure the relationship is convivial and mutually beneficial.
Learn what is important to the most important people in your life, both professionally and personally; and try to work out their overall objectives, so you can provide some value towards that goal. Look for ways you can make those objectives come to reality more easily.
You can never go wrong with gifts, especially if you’ve put a lot of thought into it and it’s presented on special occasions such as an end-of-year party or a wedding anniversary.
Men generally love customized accessories like and personalized sportswear, and diamonds are a woman’s best friend. For example, as a lady, try surprising your partner with a stylish men’s ring and watch him reciprocate the nice gesture. Who knows, maybe a diamond!
But don’t forget as well to keep a track of your records and make your partner or boss aware of them, particularly during a year-end review.
4. Always be prepared
Like the Boys Scout motto says, be prepared always. You must be clear and specific about your day-to-day objectives, as well as your overall career goals and always keep them in mind as you take on the next project or task.
Before retiring to bed at night, review your accomplishments, including any failures and the lessons attached. Then schedule for the next day and be certain about what needs to be done and when. Besides taking a mental note, write down these goals or type them on your Ipad, laptop or Smartphone. And at work or your other daily schedules the next day, continue to review and complete your to-do list throughout the day.
“With about a third of the average working adult’s day spent in the office environment, it is also important that you carefully chose workplaces that bring out the best in you, enhances your mood and generally improves your output, happiness and satisfaction levels,” suggests one hr expert.
“Among other vital social and environmental factors, proper lighting such as MyLEDLightingGuide has been scientifically proven as key for productivity and comfort in the workplace,” he emphasized.
5. Your college electives will come in handy always or at some point
Your college electives may have looked like just add-ons back then, but they helped you gain extra credits for learning about areas outside your major and understanding various parts of yourself. Don’t overlook any seemingly odd elective, such as philosophy, as the knowledge you’ve picked up from those classes could become very useful at some point in your professional or personal life and progress on success ladder.
