About Your Work
I like Simon, one of three judges on American Idol. I find his feedback refreshingly honest. And while his words startle me with their ego wounding potential, the traditional feel-good, let-you-down-easy, sugar-coated feedback is not much of a gift. It's hard to tell someone they're not good enough and their dreams are not going to happen, at least in this venue. But not telling them is no gift either. Some contestants rise to the challenges he throws at them. Some don't. And, some can't. Which one are you?
The people who influenced me most in my career were those who gave me the hardest critiques. Stricken with a bruised-ego for days, or on occasion for months, inevitably their feedback helped me make the right life choices to improve, change direction, or stay the course with intensity. In fact, the boss who was the hardest on me is the one I thank the most. Good was not good enough if I was capable of better, and she was quick to point out when that was. No sugar coating from her. And the funny thing? When I was honest with myself, I knew she was right.
Being honest with yourself is one of the challenges to winning at working. We all have talents and abilities, but they're not always in the areas we pursue at work. Too many people I've run across in my career have American Idol Syndrome (AIS). Like Idol contestants auditioning with little or no singing ability, these people believe they are good at what they do. They can't understand why they don't get the promotion, the outstanding review, or the highest increases. They view themselves as varsity team material, but they play with junior varsity skills.
When I was a freshman at Stanford, I got a D in biology. Stanford graded on a bell-curve, so an 84% that might traditionally put me in a B category, was near the class bottom. Accustomed to A's, first quarter grades woke me up. At first, I rationalized a D at Stanford was an A or a B at most any other school. But, reality prevailed. I wasn't at another school. If I was going to compete at the school I was at, it was time to use more than high school skills to bring results.
Are you applying yourself? Are you as good as you could be to get the raise, the promotion, or the more interesting work? If these are things you want, don't suffer from AIS. Give yourself some Simon-esk feedback. Ego aside. A Simon-esk answer to the questions, "how good are you?" and "are you in the right field?" offers you a chance at becoming happier and more successful at working. The answers give you choices: you can stay the course; find a playing field at your skill level; improve your skills to compete where you are; or change directions.
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Posted by Nan Russell at 12:29 PM
February 14, 2005Tip #20 - Get Your Days Worth
"Don't be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One man gets only a week's value out of a year while another man gets a full year's value out of a week." --Charles Richards
All requests are not equal; all customers or clients are not equal; all to-do-list tasks are not equal; all work responsibilities are not equal. You can do fifty things today and get little, if any, results for having done them. Or you can do one or two things that bring a better return. People who are winning at working know the difference between being busy and adding value.
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Posted by Nan Russell at 04:53 PM
February 07, 2005What's Your Openness Quotient?
I ran across a quote from John Locke in a small town newspaper. It got me thinking about people's openness quotients. How open are we to new ideas? How often do we instantly reject the unfamiliar or the new almost out of hand without due consideration?
Here's what John Locke, an English philosopher in the 17th century had to say, "New opinions are always suspect, without any other reason but because they are not always common."
Next time someone presents an idea to you that seems "over the top," stop yourself and consider if it's the idea itself or the fact that it's new that's causing you to react in a less than positive way.
You can find more thoughts on ideas in a recent Winning at Working column called: A Bit of Pollyanna.
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Posted by Nan Russell at 04:21 PM
February 04, 2005Tip #19: Immoveable Deadlines
Why is it that a class reunion, a wedding, or a boss's work deadline gets us motivated to lose the ten pounds, plan the event or achieve the goal? It's an immoveable date.
So, one trick I've used over the years to be winning at working is to create that same motivation by locking in dates, then doing the work. So, for example, rather than do most of the project work and then set the project deadline, I believe in doing it the other way around. Set the date, then do the work. It's amazing how much you can get done when you have a deadline for achievement.
When I wanted to launch a new website, I hired the web designed, set and published the date for launch. It would have been easier to do the work and launch the site when it was ready. But, setting the goal made it happen quickly and on time. That way, we both made it a priority.
Napoleon Hill, best-selling author of Think and Grow Rich, put it this way, "Definiteness of purpose is the starting point of all achievement, and its lack is the stumbling block for ninety eight out of every one hundred people because they never really define their goals and start toward them."
Setting immoveable deadlines are powerful goals that can create personal and team motivation
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Posted by Nan Russell at 10:07 AM
