As we all get ready to celebrate mom on Mother’s Day this Sunday, we thought it would be a good time to walk down memory lane and recall the best advice your mom probably gave you. At the time she was sharing her wisdom, you probably never thought about it being applied to your job choices or career decisions, but as it turns out, some of the most famous advice can be applied in this area of your life too. Here are the five pieces of advice your mom probably gave you, and how you can use when it comes to your career.
1.You can do anything if you put your mind to it
It’s true, you can do anything if you put your mind to it at work. It just sometimes takes a minute for you to get the opportunity to prove it. There will likely be one point in your career where you’re challenged beyond your wildest imagination, you might even question if you’re up to the task, but it proves to be the circumstance that gives you the confidence to feel like you can live up to your mom’s piece of advice. For some people this happens early in their careers, for others, they end up waiting until they’ve been in their careers for a decade. Whenever it happens for you, it’s okay if you feel intimidated and concerned about being up for the challenge, but if you decide to take it on, it will likely change the trajectory of your career and cement your personal beliefs about how talented and capable you really are.
2.Treat others how you want to be treated
As you’ve spent time in many workplaces, the golden rule has probably benefited you over the course of your career, but you’ve likely encountered people who have not taken that advice to heart. As you climb the rungs on your career ladder, don’t forget that you’re likely to encounter the same people on the way up as you encounter in the later part of your career on your way to retirement. Make sure that the way you treat people on the upward trajectory during your career will not come back to bite you when you’re winding down for retirement. If you’ve been someone that has been slow to offer mentorship or has a tendency to want to take all the credit for team projects, be aware of those tendencies as you move forward, and seek to do some damage control where possible. Of course it’s okay to be competitive, it’s often encouraged. However, if your competitive nature has driven you to refrain from giving praise, not telling the whole story in favor of making your contribution look more important, or giving yourself the most high profile projects without spreading the wealth, you likely need to work on your application of the golden rule.
3.Everything happens for a reason
This one likely caused you to roll your eyes when your mom or relative said this to you. It’s the one that’s the hardest to swallow. It’s basically telling us that even though we’re going through something tough, and we don’t understand why we’re having to deal with it, we’ll be glad we’re dealing with it later in life. What mom was hoping for when she told you this was that even though you wish you didn’t have to deal with whatever is going wrong in life right now, keep on keepin’ on because it will make sense later. To cite another old cliche she also probably told you, “when the going gets tough, the tough get goin’.” No matter what’s happening in your career that’s been unpleasant; surviving or being part of a lay off, being fired, losing your job, moving to keep your job, watching your peers get promoted when you think it should be you, or simply just not getting a job you wanted, these unpleasant circumstances happen to everyone, and are unfortunately usually out of your control. However, you won’t always have to be dealing with one of these negative scenarios, and you’ll be able to move ahead into a sunnier part of your career. Your mom also probably told you, “this too shall pass,” and she was right!
4.The devil is in the details
You might have even groaned when your mom said this. You likely heard this when you did a sub-par job of washing the car or vacuuming the kitchen. You missed a spot, and no matter how minor you thought your oversight was, mom was laying the groundwork for the lesson that you should check your work, and plan ahead. You probably remember the first time a teacher docked you five points for a typo, and that took your semester grade from an A- to a B+. There have been people and circumstances that have reinforced mom’s advice throughout each one of your jobs. Whether it was a spreadsheet that didn’t add correctly costing a client thousands of dollars, or an oversight on a project timeline that caused the budget to come in too high or too low, the details inevitably are the things that keep you up at night, and can be the difference between getting “employee of the month” and being left off your manager’s “short list.”
5.Put yourself in someone else’s shoes
This is your reminder to use your empathy. Mom probably brought this out when you were making fun of a neighbor kid in some way, and she explained that the reason you’re making fun of the kid is for a reason he or she had no control over. As you’ve become a manager or supervisor, your empathy toward your employees is likely what makes you the manager that everyone wants to work for, or the manager that people feel like they’re “stuck with.” If you have an employee that is chronically fifteen to thirty minutes late for work, but will stay past quitting time to get the job done, you should probably not look at them as the weak link in your team. You should be able to understand that life gets in the way of being on time in spite of the best laid plans. Not only will your employees appreciate the leeway, but you’ll have to spend less of your valuable time keeping your own mental time clock. In addition, mom probably brought this phrase out when you were feeling particularly sorry for yourself. You might not have gotten the lead in the play, or ran just one second slower than the race winner, and mom reminded you that the defeat you’re suffering is not nearly as world-crushing as it might seem like right now. -Someone else definitely has more difficult circumstances that you right now, and before you throw yourself a giant pity-party, you should think about how it could be worse. Of course mom was right about this one.
These five phrases are probably just a few of the key phrases that you might have heard your mom, dad or relatives say as you were growing up. But isn’t it amazing how phrases that were so seemingly cliche actually have merit long after you left the nest? Also, if you’re a parent now and have now found yourself passing along these grains of wisdom and wince every time you hear yourself utter one of these phrases, you’re not alone. However, just as you’re ready to tell yourself that you’re exactly like your mom, think about how many of life’s lessons your son or daughter would have to learn on their own without you to dispense advice one line at a time.