Do Your Best to Better Someone Else's

If you do your best, you can't go far wrong.

So said out grandparents and our parents. Boy were they
wrong!

Maybe in the jobs-for-life mentality of the era before
the 1980's such attitudes were laudable. Keep your nose
clean, put in a good day's work and retire after 40
years with a pension and a hacking cough.

The business world is very different today. Nowadays,
your performance isn't measured against your own
personal best, you are measured against your peers.

Who cares if you wrote the best report of your life, or
just gave the best presentation of your career? Nobody.
All that matters is the result. If Joe can write a
better report or Sam can give a better presentation,
they will pretty soon have your job.

Is that cut-throat? You bet it is. Since the Regan
years in the U.S. and the Thatcher years in the U.K.,
business has changed from the corporate family to
Darwinian evolution. Only the fittest survive.

Now, it isn't enough to just turn up and put in a good
day's work. You have to make a 'positive contribution'
as well.

How can you do that without suffering the fate of so
many rising stars: executive burnout?

Stress was the curse of the nineties and is getting
worse in the noughts. But stress is just an inability
to deal with a situation. It can be beaten. You just
have to have the right tools in your armory to fight it
back.

Here are five tools that you can use right now. They
are not industry or job-specific. Anyone can use them,
but you do have to put in the effort to learn.

Any tool, in any job, feels awkward and unwieldy when
you first pick it up. These are no different. But
practice and application will pretty soon make them all
old friends. They will keep you sane and light your way
to success.

1. Time and self management.

This is an old chestnut, but in truth, time management
has never been so important. The person who can
effectively complete six jobs in a day will always rise
higher than the one who can only complete five.

Often time management is a misnomer. What needs
managing is ourselves. Our attitudes are the time
wasters, not time itself.

Read the books, learn the skills and make every second
of your life count.

2. Positive mental attitude.

"Whether you believe you can, or believe you can't, you
are right."

What is the point in self-doubt? It is a self-
fulfilling prophesy. Far better to believe in yourself
and push yourself to achieve higher and greater things,
than to fail for lack of trying.

There are two words you should erase from your
vocabulary: can't and might.

'I can't do it' and 'I might do it' both usually mean
'I won't do it.'

You can. you should and you will.

3. Insatiable curiosity.

The old way of cocooning yourself in a little world of
your own and letting the rest of the office/company get
on with their own tasks must become extinct in your
life.

Open your eyes and your mind. If you see that a
colleague is doing some great work, ask them questions.
find out how they are doing the things they do and why.
Flatter them with your sincere interest. And learn.

Your is rarely the only way, and almost never the best.

Let's be really cynical here, how can you hope to be
better than the next person if you don't know what the
next person is doing?

4. Honest self assessment

This is one of the hardest tools to learn, but one of
the most powerful. Learn to recognize your faults and
your successes.

Then build on them.

For example, if you come to realize that logical
thinking and organization is a failing for you, make it
a priority in your life to improve. Buy some books,
attend courses and address the problem.

Don't do this passively, because it will not work.
Instead, write yourself an action plan. Detail the
stages you have to go through, the objectives you have
set for yourself and the ultimate goals. Then
continually monitor the problem until there is no
longer a problem.

The same thing goes for your strengths. Unless you can
identify them, you can't start to build on them. Be
proud of them, but not complacent. Todays top skill can
be tomorrows millstone.

5. Continual education.

The world is a wonderful university. There is knowledge
all around just for the taking. But therein lies
another problem: how to absorb all the information that
you need to?

The problem is generally solved by a degree of
selectivity. Today's executives are forced to become
specialists in narrower and narrower fields.

There are many excellent courses available on speed
reading, mega speed reading, photo reading and other
methods. Pick one and learn to read - and absorb
information faster. It will be the best new skill you
can acquire. Even if you 'only' double your reading and
comprehending speed, imagine how much extra information
that could represent!

The key point in this 'education' tool is the absolute
necessity to invest in yourself. Buy books and courses.
Attend seminars. Learn from everyone you can.

If your company has a training program, all the better.
Your self assessment skill will enable you to quickly
identify areas that you need to work on. Tell your
boss, or your human resources people. But don't do it
idly. 'I think it would be nice' is a killer. Instead,
write a memo or email detailing exactly what training
you would like, why you want it, and what benefit the
company will get from sending you. If they are serious
about training staff, they will be glad of your
positive input.

The world of business isn't going to change in a hurry.
It is up to you to adapt yourself to this hard-edged
environment or find yourself on the endangered list.

If you think that you are as good as you can be - think
again! You just haven't thought big enough yet.

About the Author

Martin Avis is a management and training consultant.
His free weekly newsletter, BizE-zine, is packed with
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