My Gen Y Life

One of the greatest pieces of advice I received in college was to develop a relationship with at least one of my professors each semester. This would give me a network of professors that would support me, share advice with me, and (maybe most importantly) be able to write recommendations for me.

The same rule applies to your career, too. If you make the effort to build relationships with mentors you will have greater success both personally and professionally. Here are the tips I recommend:

Build a relationship with at least 2 mentors each year
Logistically, you could start a new mentorship every six months. Some companies help by providing this kind of "service" to their employees to promote career development. Kudos to those that do. If you're at a majority of the companies that don't, you can initiate the mentorship either formally or informally.

Choose mentors outside of your bubble
Your manager is likely some kind of mentor to you, but you would enhance your experience by going outside your comfort zone and meeting with someone you hardly know. Use your manager to get suggestions of persons to mentor with. Find a mentor that works in a field or specialty that interests you but that you may not have experience in. You never know, it might be the catalyst for pursuing a new area.

Starts with "me"
As a mentee the ball is in your court to develop the relationship and think of questions and ideas to discuss. As long as the mentor is okay with it, you can gain valuable insight beyond just the basic job information into things like how to negotiate, where to go on vacation, and how they maintain a work/life balance.

Once you have a network of mentors, you'll find that you get more exposure in the business, become more knowledgeable, and stand out more to your manager.

I’m generally a happy person, but there are times when I’m not smiling at work. I may be concentrating on a report, thinking of ideas, just had a frustrating conversation, concerned about someone, or so on. I don’t think anyone could smile throughout the day and really mean it.

There are also some people who are paid to be nice, like receptionists for example, so they can be approachable for guests, etc. That’s part of their job. There are some people out there though who are “too” nice, and have ulterior motives for doing so. These people put on a fake smile and ask everyone how their day is going, and force conversations with people just to say they “know” them.  

Instead of this superficial nicety, just be genuinely nice to people you respect. You could lose respect quickly by being overly friendly. Most people can see right through it and it can discredit your persona for the long-term. Here are three reasons not to be nice to everyone:

1. You’ll be the “nice” guy. This is never a compliment you want. The person saying this obviously couldn’t think of anything more valuable about you then being “nice” because you over-exaggerate the very meaning of the word.
2. Co-workers won’t take you serious. Being too nice to people will automatically mark you as a pushover. Unless your co-workers only want to hear “nice” things from you, they will likely not consider you a credible person to offer critique.
3. You’ll be passed over for promotions. Good managers know when to be tough and stand up for their employees. If you’re too nice, how can your manager trust you to stand up to people if it could ruin your “nice” image?