Let's begin the year with some common sense career tips

As business educators, we focus our time on course content. What about the other important aspects that do not fit nicely under any curriculum? Such things as leadership, communication, common sense if you may.

What common sense - why this is implied, right?

Wrong - common sense seems to have taken a back seat to technology - our answer to everything.

Here are seven common sense career tips that we do not teach you in the classroom:

1. Take risks that are calculated, not crazy.
2. The worst-case scenario is rarely as bad as you think.
3. Don’t personalize things that aren’t personal.
4. It’s best in the long run to make yourself a grudge-free zone.
5. Be generous with praise and careful with criticism.
6. Know the rules, so you know which ones to break.
7. It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to get permission.

I really like rule 3 – “don’t personalize things that aren’t personal.” How true. Many people are quite narcissistic. They think that every thing that happens – positive and negative – in their lives is somehow a direct result of someone acting in a manner that is designed to either help or hurt them.