“Hey Suba, my husband is indulged in a lot of office gossips. I never knew men do that.” giggled my friend as we were chit-chatting the other day. As we all are working from home, all the wives & husbands are aware of all the ‘small talks’ scenarios.
She was awestruck when I shared how I have a module on ‘Turning workplace gossips into building a Personal Brand and Career Growth opportunities’ in my sessions. This module is a part of my speed coaching sessions that benefit most of my clients to build the network, bring in organizational awareness and create authentic personal branding.
“Have you ever had positive experience due to ‘workplace Gossips’?
Every time I raise this question, I get fantastic responses from professionals, irrespective of gender.
Is Office Gossip Positive or Negative?
Researching on the word ‘Gossip’ took me to 17th century……
Neutral View: casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details which are not confirmed as true
Negative View: a person who likes talking about other people’s private lives.”
Source: Lexico, Powered by Oxford
Positive View: a person who uses inside Information for self & other growth
Source: Me, Suba Lakshminarasimhan, Your Personal Branding Strategist
Yes, the learning from the personal experience & best practices adopted from many leaders.
How to use Workplace Gossip to your Advantage?
Learn to thin-slice the Information
Snap-second judgement and thin-slicing are my learning from the book ‘Blink’ by Malcolm Gladwell. Like in personal lives, the gossips in the workplace will help in understanding the strategic level organizational developments.
What is thin-slicing?
“You build an ability to break the Information, identify the pattern and connect it with your experience & intuition. Introspect, you may already be doing it in personal lives, aren’t you? Now, count the number of time you have understood someone correctly or the outcome accurately.”
To do – You need to build your ‘active listening skill’ here consciously.
Find the internal, Cross Functions and Promotional Opportunities within the organization
Many from the senior suite and c-suite aspirants reach out to me for CXO resume writing projects for internal openings. 60% of them get the Information through the casual conversation without anyone nominating them. Involve yourself positively in the workplace small talks which will lead you to connect with ‘who is who’ and you know the importance of such networking.
Reach out to me if you want to learn this art & science behind Personal Branding.
Elevate your Authentic Personal Brand
Be the gossiper of enabling positive mindset, motivation and growth mindset in others. How can you do that? Let me share about my chat with BFF who has been fueling such positivity during our ‘gossip’ times. We both know to discuss our pain points, redefining moments. Whenever I needed a specific ‘role model’ she will have someone to talk about. ‘See how this person is handling this model; let’s pick the best practices.’
How do your gossiping sessions benefit you?
Are you that ‘Positive Gossip-Monger?’
Share your experience……