Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep202: I asked 100 people what's their biggest career mistake.

Episode Date: January 18, 2024

✅ Watch FREE WORKSHOP, newsletter, work with me ⮕ http://www.meiphing.com ✅ Corporate Survivor™ is the ultimate career course for 9-to-5 working professionals, just like *you*, who want to enhance corporate world mindset, skillset and strategy so you can NAVIGATE + GROW your career with clarity, confidence & opportunities... 🚀 ⚡ 📌 ABOUT THIS PODCAST: Welcome to Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing — ex-Corporate Leader turned Career Coach & Founder of The Corporate Survivor™. On this podcast, Mei Phing shares her corporate world insights, experiences and wisdom so you can grow your 9-5 career with clarity, confidence and opportunities. ✅ WEBSITE ⮕ https://www.meiphing.com ✅ FREE GUIDE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/freeguide ✅ NEWSLETTER ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co/mondays ✅ CAREER COURSE ⮕ https://www.thecorporatesurvivor.co ⚡

What is your biggest career mistake? I asked 100 people in my career program and this is what they said. No matter how you feel, no matter what happened last year, more importantly, it's actually about the lessons that you have learned. I want everyone to see that like, hey, it's not just you. Other people do feel that way too. And these are some lessons that I hope that you can also take away in your career. Alright, so let's look at it. Prove yourself through notable achievements despite they don't believe in you.

Being a leader is about establishing yourself. Can you relate? Even though someone doesn't believe in you, doesn't mean you cannot take action. Doesn't mean you need to have a manager title to be responsible, to be accountable. Next one, self-reflection is a powerful tool to improve myself. The best investment is to invest in

myself. Stop judging yourself and believe that you can make a change for yourself. How often are you doing self-reflection? Do you invest in yourself? Do you judge yourself? I think these are good things to think about. This hits hard, right? Self-reflection. Remember just now, I talked about the five categories and in the lifestyle category, I asked you, how often do you

spend personal time? And the personal time is really about self-reflection. Okay? Are you investing in yourself or are you busy, you know, in the wealth section? Let me go and buy this stock,

that stock. I'm like, hello, I have the ability to double my income in the next two to three years. Can your stocks do that? Or are you too focused on the wrong thing? And are you also judging yourself?

This thing didn't work out this time. Everything else is bad. No point trying. If you're not moving forward, right? Actually, you're moving backwards. Some people think that, oh, if you're not moving forward, it means you're stuck. I'm like, yeah, that's only part of the truth. Because if you don't move forward, you stay at the same place. Everyone else is moving forward. So actually you're moving backward, no? That's like how I like to think about it. So little bit of action, little bit of steps,

right? It's still you trying to overcome whatever mindset blocks that you have in your mind. And also for you to start taking action, just see the feedback and like, you know, get feedback from the things that you have done. And that's actually really, really helpful as well. Okay, next one. Never ask, never know. Request allowances from your boss. So think one step ahead on the task and problem. Don't doubt yourself that you cannot do it. This is so important.

Never ask, never know. How many of you? We have a good qualification, hardworking, and then more importantly, do it ourselves. Okay, how do you feel? Do you feel that way also? I can do everything. Don't need to ask.

If I ask, means I'm stupid. Okay, never ask, never know. But actually, actually, it's actually just about getting support. And also, more importantly, you can always share. Hey, this is actually what I've done.

Mayping, can I still get your feedback? Not, Mayping, tell me how to do this. Big difference, big difference. So this is again, right, this year and going forward, this is something I want you guys to practice in the monthly mentoring, big difference. So this is again, right, this year and going forward, this is something I want you guys to practice in the monthly mentoring calls as well. So when you fill up the form, right, the RSVP form,

the Q&A form, right, instead of saying that, Mei Ping, just tell me what to do. What do I do with this? What do I do with that? Help me. It has to be, okay, this is the situation now. This is what I've done. Mei Ping, can I get your feedback?

Is there anything I'm missing? There's some ways you can practice as well. Use the mentoring calls to help you to think ahead of the task and problem because sometimes like you don't see what you don't see. So that's one of the things

that I've been encouraging you guys in the monthly mentoring Q&A calls is if you are watching live, you can do the practice with me or if you're watching the replay, whenever we finish the question, you can hit pause and just say, okay, what are potentially

the problems here, right? And then when you play my perspective and then say, okay, what are potentially the problems here, right? And then when you play my perspective and then ask yourself, how many of Mayping's comments did I manage to identify? How many of those things I managed to spot? And the things that I didn't manage to spot, how can I learn to spot them next time? Okay, so this is actually the real, it's the real critical thinking. Everybody talks about critical thinking, but not many people actually know how to develop that. So I think in my view, right, the Q&A calls are like the best way you can develop that okay so don't doubt yourself that you cannot do it yep yep yep okay next one never give up when things go hard uh things go wrong or hard never quit on a bad day accepting feedback from my manager as something positive good awareness continue to grow myself and then things don't happen overnight how many of you whenever your

boss gives you a feedback you're like oh my boss, you're like, oh, my boss thinks I'm dumb. Oh my God, my boss thinks I'm terrible. And then all the emotional, the mental state of mind all comes in versus how can we change that mindset to be like, okay, what did I do or what actually happened? And actually, why is my boss saying this? Okay, these are things I can improve. So it's actually turning that into like, okay, this is clearly something that someone is seeing in me. I don't see it myself. I'm like, okay, thank you. Like, thank you

for telling me that. Next one. I have learned I need to calm down and make a strategy change and a new plan, right? I also didn't have a chance to reflect

before I joined Corporate Survivor. I need to sell my value efficiently so all my hard work is heard. Good. The future five formula

I shared today, it's Meping's personal formula to calm down. And actually, this is kind of interesting because one of the comments that I consistently get

from people is like, oh, Meping, you always look very calm. You always look very confident. You're always very calm. I'm like, well, it's not because, you know, magically,

I woke up one day, oh, let's just chill out. It's not. It's how can I bucketize everything in every single box? I'm like, okay, this is under control because whatever that happens, I'm like, okay, which category does it relate to? Does it align

with the goals or the priorities that I've already set? If it doesn't relate or it doesn't help on that, I'm like, okay, strike off, don't bother. I'm like, who cares? Because it's just going to be a distraction. That actually gives me a lot of clarity. And I think with clarity, if you feel more in control, and then the calm feeling sort of comes from there. Okay, similarly here, courage, decision, decide and take action, right? Clarity tied to courage, clear on expectations and boundaries, division of work and self-validation.

Now, I think this is a really, really important question for you guys in the chat box. How many of you feel that your work, the comments that you get about your work also affects your self-worth? Mean like, if I do terrible at my job, I am stupid, I'm useless. This actually is very, very common. If you work in an office job, I think you can relate. If I get bad comments, it means that I'm useless. So I don't want you to feel that. Work is work, right? Work are those things that you can improve on. Yeah, this project sucks this month. Okay, get better.

Get better. Which other thing? What went wrong? What went right? What are the lessons learned? And how can I improve? It's like having a bad day doesn't mean it's having a bad life. It can be a terrible day at work.

Maybe some crazy client called you and then your boss went crazy or whatever. That's a bad day. That doesn't mean Mei Ping's life is terrible. I just had a bad day. maybe some of it is my fault maybe some of it is like my boss's fault but it's just a bad day if any of these like you can relate to just just put in a quick comment okay so what went wrong and lessons learned the next 12 months effective communication is essential ensuring that all the messages are conveyed accurately able to self-advocate, cultivate our critical thinking.

Now, the key word here, right, is self-advocate, which is get visible, which is having the bravery to tell people of the good work that you have done, to send progress update,

to let your boss know that you are delivering work. I think this is actually a problem for Asians when corporate survivors like kind of international students, but I find that this happens more for the Asian students

in which I think we grow up in the kind of mindset of like keep quiet. Children shouldn't be talking, keep quiet. So when we go to work, you'd be like, oh, okay, so I just need to work hard and keep quiet. Oh, that was the earlier part of my career. It didn't work out very well. Once you develop the skills, you can deliver your work, then that's why the third phase in corporate survival is get visible, right? Otherwise, get clear, get confident, and then without getting visible, then you will get stuck. Stay focused on what my core skills are.

Right. Recruiters care about your career narrative. So you need to show progression. Now, I think this is not just about job search. I also want you to think about your entire career progression. Do you know what your core skills are? Focus on that. Focus on that. Because if you feel that any comment, good or bad, from your bosses or any stakeholders,

that actually affects how you feel about yourself. And I think this is actually a good reminder to remind yourself like, hey, your career didn't just start this year. You've done a lot of good things. Yeah, maybe now it's like a season where you're like down in the dumps, right? For some whatever reason, right?

You've got some terrible projects, you're allocated a crazy manager. That's just like a phase of your career. And then we can move past it. Whether you move past by improving yourself, your relationship, or maybe just changing to another job or changing to another company,

better culture, but it's just a phase. But your core skills stick with you. So for example, even though I'm doing career coaching, career mentoring right now, it doesn't take away all the consulting, banking experience,

all the compliance experience that I have. It doesn't take away any of that, right? In fact, it actually builds on that. So I hope that you think about it that way too. Okay, so you have just heard from my corporate survivor members on what went wrong in their career in the last 12 months, and more importantly, the lessons that they have learned. And I want you to share with me which story inspired you the most. If you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment below. And if you want to learn a bit more on the approach that I teach my clients to plan and grow

their careers, you can download my five-day career growth guide. You should be able to get it in the LinkedIn description below or visit www.mapin.com. So I look forward to seeing you soon and all the best in your career.