Motivational

Rule 96: Keep your ear to the ground

December 27, 2016

Globacom’s Strong Man and Corporate Strategist, Otunba Niyi Adewunmi

If
you don’t know what is going on, how can you make informed decisions or
co-ordinate your career plan? It might
be as simple as someone applying for a position you had in mind. If they are more experienced, better
qualified, have more expertise and skill in that area then you might be
sensible holding back. If you don’t you
will probably fail – and a Rules Player is always successful.

Now
you don’t want gossip, you want hard facts. You want to know what is going on
without having to listen to tittle-tattle
and idle chit-chat. Therefore, it makes sense to:

·
Use
your contacts for information from other departments

·
Pay
attention at meetings. It is often
surprising how much information you can pick up by reading between the lines.

·
Watch
and listen for the ‘hidden agendas’,
what people are saying might mask what is really going on

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});

·
Cultivate
the office favorite/s and you’ll find that they invariably know stuff mere
mortals aren’t privy to – you’ll just have to get them to spill the beans

“Now you don’t want
gossip, you want hard facts. You want to know what is going on without having
to listen to tittle-tattle and idle chit-chat”.

·
Keep
abreast of things like the trade press as you may pick up bits of information
that have been ‘leaked’ to the press
before the rank and file have been told – that new merger, the takeover, the
acquisition of a rival company, all these can be useful snippets of information
that can put you one step ahead of colleagues and competitors.

A
lot of people don’t get anywhere with their job because they spend far too much
time doing their job. You need to get
your head up from time to time and look around you. You might find the herd has moved on while
you were busy feeding and now you are alone and forgotten.