Stop Helicopter Parenting- Teach your college kids 3 ground rules to follow at work

So we all have witness stories about helicopter parents hovering over their child’s entire life. Some parents have also made media headlines by walking to college campuses to changes roommates, course schedules and even change the grades.

For those parents, whose kids are approaching graduation in May 2016, they would be worried and nervous as their kids will be moving from a college dorm room’s comfortable environment to real world office chaos. In college, they were around people who of the same age but at work, those new grads will be surrounded by co-workers, who have different age groups, culture backgrounds and even diverse social environment.
So if you fall in the category of worried and anxious so called helicopter parents, who are currently feeling helpless, because they wont be able to monitor their kid's career once they step into real world. Then you might want to teach your kid these three ground rules before they start their first job. These suggestion can help you to shift your attitude from being a helicopter mom or dad to more like submarine parents, who are willing to give suggestions but don't direct kids which path to follow.
Here are some points to consider as a survival kit for your kids at their first job, so you can stop hovering over them.

Act Professional- Follow “A-M-M-R” rule
In your new job, you will have multiple opportunities to leave an impression on your co-workers. Your main goal should be to create a positive image of yourself, so that people want to learn more about you. There are few essential keys to act professional in addition to grooming, working on your appearance and your clothes, which is to follow  “A-M-M-R” rule.
Attitude- you may be topper in your school and have secured straight A’s in the class but that does not mean the your coworkers will grade you same. Try not to display over-confidence at work, it can get in the way of building the good working relationships for future. Display can-do attitude when any task is assigned, don’t criticize or burn the bridges with your co-workers. At last, don’t be cynical and deal with criticism positively.
Manners- You are no more in the college dorm room- keep your volume down while making conversation or laughing over a joke in your cubicle. Workplace is changing, you will be working with a diverse culture, your co-workers can be from different countries, and follow different religions or English could not be their first language. Please remember, not to make any racial jokes during any conversation.
Maturity-You will make several mistakes at work, the key is to accept the mistakes, admit the faults-learn and move on. Avoid using foul language if you are frustrated over a process, decision or on your co-worker behavior.
Respect- Remember to appreciate your coworker for their time, it is very important to say “Thank you”- it creates a good will between two employees. Don’t be Judgmental-Diverse culture in an office can steer up stereotypical judgments- at all cost, remember not to be judgmental about your managers, co-workers and other based on their religion, upbringings and culture.

Effective Communication
The four-letter word “S E N D” can actually take your first job or any job away in just matters of hours. There are 100s of disaster stories on Internet when an employee has accidentally hit “REPLY ALL”, reveal the project’s incompetency to the client, “CC” higher up without measuring the consequences.
Trust me, there will be times when you cannot use your best judgement while responding to any email because your associate just ran you over in the meeting, you got blamed for being unproductive for a project or your presentation was not up to the game.
If you want to avoid all this mistakes while writing an email, you can follow this few simple techniques to send perfect emails- Have emotional control while responding to any situation via 1) Always open a word document to type the content of your response. By using word document, you will be able to correct grammar, format the content and wont hit send accidentally. 2) If you have type a short response then you can type in the body of your outlook or Google mail body but try to avoid and practice using word document. 3) Anybody can write 2 pages response, the key to successful email is to write short, precise and effective content 4) Triple check your response, your email should not look defensive,  inappropriate or abusive.
Brownie point: If you like a response from your associates or your manager- remember to keep a copy of that email, so you can follow the same format in future.

      Effective writing is an art ! Practice makes it perfect 

I would suggest reading Cherie Kerr’s Book: Click the link below

The Bliss or "Diss" Connection?: Email Etiquette for the Business Professional

Brownie point: 15 Tips for Writing Effective Email by Tina Su

 Business Acumen
Business acumen is very dry and invisible subject and not many organization or managers are willing to teach that subject to their employees.
If you are new grad at first job, you have an advantage to prepare a personal goal to learn about the business acumen of your department as well as organization. Business acumen is to understands how your organization manages resources, makes decisions, generate revenue, manage upcoming future projects and collaborations. Your position may not be directly involved in making decisions but you can start building up your rationale by understanding your organization’s source of revenue for your future positions.

All the major companies like Apple, Microsoft, Wegmans, Wholefoods etc work on a common driver which 1) Cash 2) Profits 3) Assets 4) Growth 5) Employees.

It is very easy to start understanding the business acumen of any organization. All you need to do is to pick each week to learn about your organization:
First two weeks: Learn about your company?
Following week: About your industry as a whole?
Know who are your company’s competitors?
Know your company’s customers or clients as a group?
Compare the technology used by your organization vs. your competitor?
Brownie points: Follow your organization social media accounts as well as your competitors to know upcoming news or projects, read business journals, ask your executives or managers, pay attention to your organizations newsletters.Organization newsletters are must- they will give all the news about upcoming projects.

Top books I recommend for new grads

Getting from College to Career Rev Ed: Your Essential Guide to Succeeding in the Real World

Pitch Perfect: How to Say It Right the First Time, Every Time