YOU'RE HIRED!

If you're like many people, your job makes up a big part of your life.In some ways, it defines who you are. But what if you're not happy with your current career or you desire to move up within your company? Where do you start? When Carolyn Kepcher, Donald Trump's right-hand woman on the NBCreality show The Apprentice, decided to move on from her position managing a Manhattan restaurant, her attitude and ability to make an impression played a key role in her future success.While interviewing for a position at the country club that eventually led to her first meeting with Trump, she was told the company was looking for someone smart and committed to put together golf outings, manage tournaments, and sell memberships. Kepcher had worked in the restaurant business for several years, but she knew little about golf.She admitted her lack of golf-related knowledge, but she focused on selling her other qualities. Kepcher writes of her interviewer's response in her book, Carolyn 101:"He was much less concerned about my lack of experience than he was impressed by my apparent enthusiasm for the place and its upside potential … Before the week was out, he offered me the job."Kepcher's experience exemplifies the fact that people who get ahead are not necessarily those who are well-connected or more knowledgeable.
They are, according to Terry Barber, author of Worth Every Penny: Become the Person Your Clients (and Your Company) Can'tLive Without and director of integration services at Grizzard Communications Group, those who make things happen by creating energyand lasting impressions with people. They're what he calls a positiveforce.
Four characteristics of one who is a positive force:
1. Acts as a thermostat, not a thermometer. A thermometer reads the temperature of a room, but a thermostat regulates the volume of coolor warm air that goes into the room. When a person decides to be a thermostat, he or she can, for example, make a conscience choice about how they want a meeting to go in terms of tone, pace, impressions, and so forth. "A person can drive the emotional temperature of a room,"says Barber, "by how they greet others, what they wear, the pace in which they speak, and the level of intensity in which they both speak and listen."
2. Purpose-driven versus title-driven. Communicating that you understand your life compass is essential. Let others know that the most important thing to you is not your title. What's important is that you know who you are, what motivates you, and that the job you take will put wind in your sails.
3. Teachable versus taught. Successful people love to help others succeed. Being teachable is an admirable trait, and it communicates that you don't know it all. "The most respected and competent people in industry are those who look for opportunities to learn from others," says Barber.
4. Life givers versus life suckers. Being around people who are a positive force energizes you. Being around complainers and whiners will suck the life out of you.
Becoming a Positive Force in the Workplace In order to become a positive force, Barber says there are two key steps that a person can take.Order your private world. Connecting the dots between your heart (your desires), mind (what you choose to think about), and spirit (your connection with God that will yield imagination and passion) is essential.
First, consider your heart's desires. If money and other pressures weren't an issue, what would you be doing with your day-to-day activities? Where would you be making a difference?
Second, quit listening to the negative influences of people around you. Rework your thinking so that you consider all the things you can do and the positive differences that you can make. Find others to model your life after and fill your mind with the same kinds of things they read and listen to.
Third, sit in solitude before the Lord and ask Him to guide you in what you're doing. Pray about your goals and the challenges you experience on a daily basis. "It's the Lord who helps to energize our imagination and our passions," says Barber. You'll know you've connected all the dots — heart, mind, and spirit —when you can lie down at night or get up in the morning and the desires of your heart meet with the opportunities in your hand. On the flip side, if you go to bed thinking, How much longer do I have to do this? I wonder how I can jump ship and do that, then the dots aren't connected.If this is the case, it's time to reassess and think about approaching your job differently. Rather than looking at what you're not getting or how others are mistreating you, tap into the mission of your organization and start thinking about it and your part in it." However, if you can't do this where you are because you don't agree with the things your company stands for, or it's just not within the makeup of who you are, then yes, start dreaming about other things you can do," says Barber.