Your job interview is over and you are confidently getting ready for your first day at work. But now it’s time to make sure you can make a good impression on everyone – your management, co-workers, and other team members you are going to work with.

Why does it even matter, you might ask. Because every company expects to hire not just good professionals, but also good team players who will gladly acquire new skills, show enthusiasm and willingness to collaborate.

A good first impression is not just about being good in someone’s eyes. It will help you achieve the following:

– Undeniably successful trial period
– Friendly and easy-going relationship with other team members
– Easier conflict management in a team
– Faster promotion to higher positions and salary rise
– More trust from the management
– Better reputation at your workplace
– Higher job satisfaction

Now let’s see what you can do to make it happen.

Look Professional

Your clothes can tell a lot about you. No matter what job you have, too informal clothes might create an unfavorable impression about you. If you are going to deal with clients, you’d better wear some formal clothes. If not, it’s enough to find a good combination of formal and casual styles.

Try to remember what others were wearing when you came for a job interview. It will reduce your confusion a bit. Make sure that your makeup, accessories, and clothes reflect the image of a professional career person.

Be Open to New Knowledge

Every employer expects to find candidates with the appetite for new skills and expertise. Don’t ever say that it’s not your job to do something.

Don’t leave the workplace as soon as your workday ends. Stay for a few minutes or even for an hour longer to show you are really interested in your new job.

Ask questions whenever you are unsure about something. Keeping yourself from asking questions may lead to misunderstandings later on and you might end up re-doing some of your work.

If your managers assign more materials for you to read in order for you to get to know your job and the company better, welcome this opportunity instead of complaining. You can even ask for more advice on honing your skills, or finding really useful literature and resources. Employers take note when they see employees making an effort.

Become a Part of the Company

Emergencies and deadlines are usual things. You might face them on the very first day at work. If you do, remember that it is not anyone else who has to deal with them. Show your willingness to help, especially if you have the necessary skills.

If you are asked to stay at work for a bit longer, don’t show your unwillingness and dissatisfaction. Your company’s success is your success and your company’s failure is your failure. You need to show that you care not just about job responsibilities, but also about the company as a whole.

If there is an opportunity, introduce your creative ideas into everything you are involved in, be it a project or upcoming entertainment event. As a new employee, there will be situations where you do not have the big picture yet but many employers will appreciate hearing fresh ideas and new takes.

Avoid Gossiping

You might notice that some of your coworkers spend a lot of time gossiping, browsing the web or simply chatting non-stop. It doesn’t mean it’s appropriate in this company and you should do the same. Just do your job as you have to. If this chatting distracts you, just put on headphones and concentrate on your work.

While some gossipers might consider you a nerd, your managers will appreciate your focus on your job. As you are a fresher, your progress will be strictly monitored. You might even be asked at the end of the day to show what you’ve done. Every minute of gossiping and chatting will make your results look poorer.

See Also: 3 Amazing Strategies To Increase Productivity 

That’s not to say you really have to be an antisocial nerd. Build a friendly relationship with other team members during lunchtime or short tea breaks. Engage them on “safe” and positive topics like leisure activities within the company, their job responsibilities, and the most interesting projects. Avoid speaking badly about your former job. Be friendly and optimistic.

Mind Your Time

Being late is a bad habit that says a lot about you. Make sure you get to your workplace on time, especially if the schedule is not flexible. Take traffic and other factors into account to make sure you are there when the workday starts. Otherwise, it might say a lot about your inability to meet deadlines or respect company rules.

Time is also important when you are given certain tasks during the day. Do your best to do all them in time. If you are falling behind on a task, inform your manager and ask for more time. Similarly, if you finish ahead of time, inform your manager that you are already finished and ready to move on to the next task. It will say a lot about how responsible you are and that you don’t feel comfortable wasting your time at work.

See Also: 5 Essential Time Management Tips to Live By 

Summary

Often, people’s first impressions depend largely on personality types. However, the rest is still in your hands. You already succeeded when your resume passed a stringent screening process and when you aced your job interview. The first days of work, however, is the time to prove that your employers made the right choice when they hired you. Just remember how easier it will be for you to build your career, deal with coworkers, and simply enjoy your new job if you make a positive impression.

 

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Have you ever watched the movie Moneyball?

The lead character Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, pressed forward in his plans to re-create the Oakland A’s baseball team. He pursued this goal with a single-minded determination, stating continuously, “It’s a process, It’s a process.”

Billy understood that in deconstructing the old way of doing things, you create the potential to build a new way. The story of Billy Beane is an example of how a systematic process can change the way you play the game. Following through from beginning to end is the key.

Research from Prosci indicates that “projects with excellent change management effectiveness are six times more likely to meet or exceed project objectives.” Completing the process improves not only the bottom line. It also builds trust and maintains continuity within the organization, thus reducing chaos within the organization.

Three Steps to Create an Effective Plan for Change

Use these steps as a template to create any new plan or goal. Change introduces the opportunity for an intentional plan that keeps the process moving forward.

These three steps may seem simple, but one misstep in any part of the process fractures the flow of the work. How many times have you seen a plan fall apart because there was no follow through on the goals?

Awareness

The first step in any process for change begins with an awareness of the situation. Awareness can come in many forms: the awareness that something needs to change, an awareness that there is a problem, or even an awareness that something just does not feel right.

As Claire Hartman, President of First Community Title in Temple, TX stated, “There was something I needed to work on from a professional standpoint, but I wasn’t sure how to get there. It was also personal. I could tell something was a little broken, but I couldn’t figure out how or what it was or even conceive how to look for what it was. It was a gut feeling. I didn’t know where to go.”

Awareness generates an opening for change.

Once you have created an awareness for change, then you start to look at the broader view and the available options. I sometimes call this the fantasyland view because, now, all things are possible.

Fantasyland view equals brainstorming. You explore all the possibilities, even the ones outside of your comfort zone. If you don’t expand your awareness of opportunities and issues, then you may miss options that change the way you accomplish business for the better.

Categorize both facts, which are verifiable and expectations, which are personal/organizational beliefs of what one wishes were true. The activity of awareness moves you into the second part, which is words.

Words

Words allows you to start putting form to fantasy. Words offer a place in the process where judgments of good or bad, or right or wrong do not exist. Talk about or write out all the possibilities that began to emerge with the first step of awareness. Confirm verifiable facts versus beliefs, which may differ from person to person within the group. With words, you create a plan for what you want to do and how you want to proceed.

The second phase offers individuals the opportunity to discuss ideas and encourages creativity or innovation. If the words, “We have always done it that way” are uttered in this step, then you may need to take yourself or others in the group back to the awareness stage.

Fantasyland narrows into feasible options for what you want to accomplish and how you are going to achieve these changes. You may set goals and timelines so that there is a systematic approach to the changes. You also set rules for engagement to help keep the focus on the plan, not the problems.

Actions

The third and final step offers actions. When you ask the question, “Which tells the true nature of a person or an organization, their words or actions?” almost universally, the answer is actions.

By this step, you or individuals within the organization should see renewed awareness. The goals and objectives are written out with timelines. Until awareness and words become actions, effective change cannot occur, either personally or organizationally.

Remember, it’s a process, it’s a process. The process of change management takes time and forward momentum to be effective.

A misstep of any of these three steps fractures the process. Without awareness, plans reduce to a narrower view, possibly missing key options that could benefit you or the organization. When you do not discuss possible options, then you may lose valuable information that identifies what regulations or limitations impede goals, and miss new emerging ideas. Without actions, the genuine nature of individuals and organizations diminishes due to inactivity and dissonance with the words.

As you forge through these steps toward your goals, it is important to remind yourself and others, “It’s a process. It’s a process.” The change you create by maintaining these three steps helps you and your team to become even more effective for a game-changing season.

 

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