The Internet has given us many new words: one is newbie. It means newcomer or initiate. Many professions have formalized status for newbies: doctors begin as interns, attorneys as associates, pilots as co-pilots, and more. Typically, newbie rank is a way to continue your education in an environment uniquely suited to teaching important lessons. You do become a part of a team, but your main contribution is your own education.
For many, it's a difficult role. Achieving a goal so long desired, only to discover that the path leads through positions of such low status, can be frustrating indeed. Being the least of the best — even when it is also the best of the least — can be a painful reality. Here is Part I of a set of guidelines for newbies, emphasizing the inner experience of the role.
- Enter gently
- Jumping in with both feet probably won't work. Assume that you'll have to earn the respect of all, and that you'll fail with some. Easing in gently, listening and observing, helps you avoid the blunders that can harden impressions of you prematurely.
- Accept your station
- However frustrated you feel about being a newbie, accept the reality. Don't try to prove that you're better than people seem to think. Everyone knows you have talent — if you didn't, you wouldn't have been accepted for the position.
- Know the value you bring to the team
- The value you offer is a channel for investment. Since the team is investing in you for the future, rather than the present, your main job is learning. Demonstrate that you can learn, and learn fast, and you'll impress the people who are responsible for making your learning possible.
- Recognize your mistakes and ignorance
- See your mistakes and ignorance for what they are: emblems of your newness and humanity, rather than proof of defect. Accept their existence, and do what it takes to plug the holes in your knowledge and prevent repetitions of mistakes. All the competent stars around you went through much the same thing you're going through now.
- Learn how to handle feeling ignorant
- Distinguish stupidity from ignorance. Is making mistakes upsetting to you? If so, why? If errors upset you, Jumping in with both feet
probably won't work. Assume
that you'll have to earn
the respect of all.learning will be painful, because much of what we learn comes from errors. If you have trouble dealing with your own mistakes, fix it.
Most important, remember that this stint at being a newbie won't be your last. There will be a first time for you in many possible roles: spouse, parent, Nobel Laureate, nursing home resident, and on and on. Learning how to be a successful newbie might just be the most valuable lesson of all.
In Part II, we'll examine how the role connects to others in the workplace. Top Next Issue
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Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
- Ten Tactics for Tough Times: I
- When you find yourself in a tough spot politically, what can you do? Most of us obsess about the situation
for a while, and then if we still have time to act, we do what seems best. Here's Part I of a set of
approaches that can organize your thinking and shorten the obsessing.
- When You Think Your Boss Is Incompetent
- After the boss commits even a few enormous blunders, some of us conclude that he or she is just incompetent.
We begin to worry whether our careers are safe, whether the company is safe, or whether to start looking
for another job. Beyond worrying, what else can we do?
- The End-to-End Cost of Meetings: II
- Few of us realize where all the costs of meetings really are. Some of the most significant cost sources
are outside the meeting room. Here's Part II of our exploration of meeting costs.
- Way Over Their Heads
- For organizations in crisis, some but not all their people understand the situation. Toxic conflict
can erupt between those who grasp the problem's severity and those who don't. Trying to resolve the
conflict by educating one's opponents rarely works. There are alternatives.
- Fake Requests for Help
- When a colleague asks for assistance, we can feel validated, even flattered. But not all requests for
help are what they seem. The more devious amongst us can be endlessly creative in employing requests
for help to achieve devious ends.
See also Workplace Politics and Workplace Politics for more related articles.
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- And on September 11: Beating the Layoffs: II
- If you work in an organization likely to conduct layoffs soon, keep in mind that exiting voluntarily can carry advantages. Here are some advantages that relate to collegial relationships, future interviews, health, and severance packages. Available here and by RSS on September 11.
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Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group