What people with EXTRAORDINARY CAREERS have in common:
1. Understand the value of you. People with extraordinary careers understand
how value is created in the workplace, and they translate that knowledge into
action, building their personal value over each phase of their careers.
2. Practice benevolent leadership. People with extraordinary careers do not
claw their way to the top; they are carried there.
3. Overcome the permission paradox. People with extraordinary careers
overcome one of the great Catch-22s of business: You can’t get the job without
experience, and you can’t get the experience without the job.
4. Differentiate, using the 20/80 principle of performance. People with
extraordinary careers do their defined jobs exceptionally well but don’t stop
there. They storm past predetermined objectives to create breakthrough ideas and
deliver unexpected impact.
5. Find the right fit (strengths, passions, and people). People with
extraordinary careers make decisions with the long term in mind. They willfully
migrate toward organizations and positions where their natural strengths and passions
fit well and where
they can work with people they like and respect.
6.
The Special
Quality of Top Performers.
There is one special quality that seems to separate the most successful
people from the least successful. It is the quality of initiative. The top
performers in every study seem to demonstrate much higher levels of personal
initiative than the average performers.
7. Work with Your
Strengths. Your strengths - your love of problem solving, your
assertiveness, you altruism, your analytical mind - are your natural appetites
and in this sense irrepressible. They also strengthen you, when used.
8. Discover What You
Don't Like Doing and Stop Doing It. The relevant metaphor is sculpting -
sustained success is not just about what you add on but what you have the
discipline to cut away.
9. Develop EQ to
Secure Your Future at Work.
The Conceptual Age
is dawning and those who hope to survive in it must master the high-concept,
high-touch abilities that some are calling EQ (emotional quotient, as opposed to
IQ).
