The year ahead provides plenty of opportunities to socialise with colleagues and clients. Team gatherings of any sort are a great opportunity to relax, have fun and get to know the people you are with. However never lose sight of the fact your behaviour will reflect on your character and career potential. While most people expect a more relaxed and informal atmosphere at work events, equally most expect a degree of decorum. Keeping it classy means, behaving in ways any re
Unlock indepth features,executive
interviews and quarterly magazines
Theyear ahead provides plenty of opportunities to socialise with colleagues andclients. Team gatherings of any sort area great opportunity to relax, have fun and get to know the people you arewith. However never lose sight of thefact your behaviour will reflect on your character and career potential. Whilemost people expect a more relaxed and informal atmosphere at work events,equally most expect a degree of decorum. Keeping it classy means, behaving inways any reasonable person would consider respectful. That is to both the people you are with andyourself. While it’s always important tobe authentic, work events are definitely a setting you need to bring the bestversion of yourself to. Reflectfor a moment on the guy who decided it was a great idea to share his karaokesinging talents, uninvited, at an event attended by clients. The simple, albeit harsh reality is if hecould sing particularly well, most people wouldn’t have minded. The trouble was he couldn’t and in hisinebriated state he struggled to even remember the lyrics. Whilerolling around drunk, and encouraging the crowd to join in on a sing alongmight be OK at a private party, there are so many reasons it’s not OK at a workevent. This same guy was at that timehoping for a promotion. His justificationfor his behaviour was he wanted to ‘bring a bit of life’ to the party and couldsee no harm in how he had behaved. Beingthe class clown isn’t the best path to career success. Themost important and common pitfall to avoid is drinking to excess. This can be particularly challenging if youenjoy a drink and alcohol is free flowing over a long day. It’s OK to have a few, but understand yourlimits and pace yourself. The last thingyou want is to turn up to work the next day and discover you said or did abunch of things you can’t even remember.Takingthe opportunity to provide feedback to your boss on their performance, forexample, isn’t a great idea when you’ve had a few too many. One young man I met faced the daunting taskof having to meet with the CEO the morning after he did exactly that at a workevent. Made worse was the fact hecouldn’t recall what he had said and needed to be reminded, by the CEO!Asa leader, manager or event organiser the spotlight is on you. The standard of behaviour you set throughexample is the same standard you can expect from others. Poor judgement and bad behaviour isunfortunately all too common among the people in charge. Take for example the boss who was foundoutside the venue in a compromising position with a junior team member. While the team who gathered to observe mayhave had a laugh, the flow on impacts to his reputation and career weredevastating. Keepit classy and you’re entirely more likely to enhance your reputation for beinga mature and professional individual. Inother word, be the kind of person who can be trusted to represent theorganisation well. Take the opportunityto demonstrate your ability to engage with new people and contribute in apositive way to the party environment without the need to be the centre ofattention or regressing to your teenage self.
