Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep212: How to become top performer at every company.

Episode Date: May 30, 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 ⚡

Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. If you want to become a high performer at your job, here are three things that you must understand. Welcome back to the Corporate Survivor Podcast with me, Mei Ping,

your career coach and former corporate leader. Now, one of the things that I get asked throughout my entire career journey is, Mei Ping, how did you climb the career ladder so early in your career? You were really young when you became a manager, when you became a director, all under the age of 30. What did you know and what did you do that you can also teach us?

So this is a common question that I get asked from my peers, from my colleagues, and now clients in my career program, The Conversive Virate. In this episode, I want to share with you the three things that you must understand. And these are actually big picture things

that you must understand if you want to become a high performer, a top performer, you want to get recognized at any job, you want to be successful in any career. These are the three things that you must understand first before developing any skill. So let's get started. Okay. So the first thing that helped me become a high performer at my job is understanding the corporate world. Now I'm not just talking about having a positive mindset or an optimistic mindset. I'm talking about actually understanding how the corporate world works. I always talk about the fact that the corporate world is like a jigsaw puzzle where everything is connected. The corporate world is like a game where there are rules. And these are rules that it's not that Maypink has created it. It's not something that me and you can change,

but it's just generally how the corporate world works. Like for example, a smaller company will be unstructured. It will be chaotic. A bigger company will be more complicated, there'll be more stakeholders. Others corporate rules include your boss will always care about the work that's being delivered, always care about the results, not the effort. The higher that you climb the career ladder, the higher the expectations. If you're hardworking but stay quiet and invisible, you're probably not going to get the job promotion and the salary increment that you want. And for example, if you're a job seeker and you don't understand what hiring managers are looking for, which is competence, confidence, and collaboration skills, you'll probably not pass the interview and get the job offer. Now, these are just some examples I can think of right

now. But what I'm trying to say here is that these are the rules of the corporate world. It's not Meping's rule. It's not your rule. It's not anybody else's rule. It is the same rule that will apply as long as you are working in a 9-5 job, meaning you are working in an organization, whether it's an MNC, GLC, startup, SME, NGO, the rule applies. Because once you truly understand how the corporate world works, this is a knowledge that you can bring on

to any job and any career and to make sure that you are successful because the rules never change. And this is something that I've also personally done when changing careers from small companies to big companies, underpaid to overpaid and everything else. And this is something that I've also personally done when changing careers from small companies to big companies, underpaid to overpaid and everything else.

And this is something that you can also do the same. And which is why in my career program, in phase one, we always talk about understanding the corporate world. And even during my monthly

mentoring calls in my program, I always give perspective on what are the corporate world rules? How does it apply? And how you can better understand so you can better navigate the corporate world. And I think this is really the core foundation. Before you build on

any leadership skills, before you try to get fancy, make sure that you understand the corporate world. So that is the first thing. Now moving on to the second thing that you must master if you want to be a high performer is a very, very deep understanding of the job. Meaning exactly the role that you have signed up for. Having a good understanding of your role, how you fit within the team and how your job function fits within the entire organization. This is again, you know, back to the jigsaw puzzle analogy that I talked about a little bit earlier, but this is really starting from the point of making sure that you have a good understanding of the job that you have taken on. Now, the mistake that I've seen for many people is that,

you know, they get very excited during the interview, doing the job offer with a very good pain and everyone's very excited. You sign the job offer and then once you start the new role, then you panic a little bit. Maybe you are a little bit anxious, a little bit excited and eventually you feel a little bit lost. So it's not a good thing. So every top performer, every high performer knows that before accepting the job offer, even during the interview process, they are always very clear on, okay, what is this role? How can I contribute? What competencies do I have? How do I need to upskill? What are the learning that I need? What are the first steps that I need to take on the moment I start this role? So this will ensure that you will be successful in adapting comfortably and confidently within

the first 30, 60 or even 90 days in the role. So really knowing your KPIs and aligning it with your manager and having an action plan to make sure that you don't get distracted, to set boundaries so that you're not doing anything a little bit extra, just really, really focus on upskill, to collaborate, to get to know different stakeholders who will be able to help you to complete your work. This is something that every single high performer is focused on. Before you go around helping someone else, before you go around doing other people's work, you need to make sure that you have successfully met your KPI, delivered over and above, then you go volunteering. Early in my career, I'm the person who goes around volunteering my time. If someone tells me, asks me, oh, Mipin, can you help me with this and that? I would just say, okay, okay, okay. But I didn't really understand that the moment I said yes,

this kind of became my responsibility and eventually no one else is going to help me with that work. So you don't want to be in a situation where you take on more and more and more work and have no boundaries because I've tried it when I was really young. Very bad idea. Once I learned that, okay, you know what? I need to have a very good understanding of my KPI, exactly how to deliver it, making sure I have the right skills and making sure my boss is aware that I'm putting in effort and contributing and getting results. Then, you know, I look for other opportunities. I look for other things that can enhance my portfolio in the company. But I will always, always focus on the main role I have signed up for. Really, really having a good understanding of the job that you're supposed to be doing

before you go and do anything else. So staying focused is definitely the core quality. And it starts with having a deep understanding, a good understanding of the role that you sign up for. Moving on to the third thing, which is also really, really important to be successful at any job and particularly to become a high performer, a top performer. And this is also a quality that you see in people that you would deem as confident and competent at your workplace. And that is having a very good understanding of people, working with anyone, everyone across all levels, from fresh graduate

executive manager, director, all the way to C-suite. One of the things that I think that has made me really successful and able to climb the career ladder so quickly is that I have a very good understanding of people. Now, I'm not saying that I'm an extrovert. Actually, I'm not an extrovert. I am an introvert. What I'm talking about is understanding people at a deep level, their personalities, people dynamic, how to understand what motivates certain people, right? How do you collaborate and how do you influence and how do you communicate in a way that can actually drive collaboration, can drive working relationship? This is a skill in itself, but it starts with understanding people. Because if you don't understand how someone thinks, feels, behave, and their working habits, it's almost impossible to work with anyone. And you

cannot survive alone in the corporate world. Like if you are alone, you are quiet, you are invisible, and you're working hard, it doesn't work. You will not get rewarded because again, back to the first part, it is not the corporate world rule. The corporate world rule is that you need to collaborate, drive results, and you need to be seen so you can get rewarded. So understanding people is so, so, so, so, so important. If you find yourself working alone because everybody's an idiot around you, you need to take a pause and ask yourself, okay, how can I learn more about people? People dynamic, personalities, how to work with one another, how to influence one another, how to communicate with one another.

These are such critical skills that not only help you survive at your current job, but will also help you become a top performer, a high performer and continue to rise up the career ladder. Because at the top level, you'll notice that all the bosses, particularly management and leadership, they have very, very good EQ. They have very, very good people skills because this is a skill and an understanding that is developed and honed throughout their career journey. And it becomes even more critical at the top level. So three things, as I said, understanding the corporate world, understanding your job and understanding

people. Before you focus on any other skill, you need to make sure that you have fully understood. And this will really, really help you to have have the right context have the right mindset and have the right lens and view of really assessing what is the actual situation what is the actual job how does the things work so that you're not wasting your time effort and energy to chase something that doesn't work you can always make sure that whatever that you're doing will get you closer to the result that you want whether you want to become a top performer high performer you want a promotion you want an increment it is the, high performer, you want a promotion, you want an increment, it is the same. Mastering these three things will give you the highest chance possible

to achieve that career goal that you want. And this is something that I've also personally done for myself so I can tell you that it totally works. Which is why in my career program, The Corporate Survivor Phase 1,

it is all about understanding the corporate world. How do you start your job? Understanding the corporate jigsaw puzzle, how do you fit in the picture, as well as understanding people and personality types. If you can truly understand these three things, it will make you so powerful. You will be able to survive and grow a career in any job. And that is why I make sure

all my corporate survivor members go through these lessons to equip themselves with the right knowledge. Just a very quick announcement. I am hosting a bonus mindset masterclass at the end of this week. That's going to be June 1st. And there's also going to be a very special people and office politics workshop happening on june the 8th so if you have been following this podcast for some time and you truly want to learn from me you want to learn how to master the corporate world so that you can survive navigate and grow a career then i want to invite you to join the corporate survival now is the best time to join because it is going to be your mid-year reset and growth and you'll also be able to join our two live workshops so you can find more information at www.madeping.com. It should be in the description below. If you have any questions,

you can drop me a message on LinkedIn or Instagram. So until then, enjoy, and I hope to see you in the corporate survivor. See ya!