Sunday, December 1, 2024

Do You Want to Become A High Performer?

Whether you are an entrepreneur or an employee, you must perform to your optimum to succeed. This means that now and then, and periodically, you have to pause and do an introspection to check if you are a high performer or a mediocre performer. If the introspection reveals there is a scope for improvement in your performance, you have to swing into action. Otherwise, the aroma of success is likely to evade you. Further, you will be a guilt-ridden individual since you have not been performing to your optimum potential. So, what are the steps you should take to achieve the aim of becoming a high performer? Let us deep dive into this.


1. Be healthy.

Good health is the #1 prerequisite for delivering high performance consistently. You will be a naive duffer if you ignore your health. If you do not eat healthy foods and if you are not physically fit, you will always underperform. Further, your mind will get distracted by the health problems you suffer from.  So, always make it a point to eat healthy diets and exercise regularly so your energy levels are high enough to help you perform well.

2. Put in place systems and routines.

You cannot carry out your entrepreneurial or career-related tasks in a haphazard manner. If you are in the habit of not following any structures, the chances of accumulating clutter in your workplace will become high. This again will bring down your efficiency and your aim of performing optimally will be a remote dream. On the contrary, if you have systems, routines, and discipline in your approach, you can easily perform to your optimum level. But which are the systems and routines you should put in place? For this, your observation and study of those who have already tasted success in their endeavors should be as focused and shrewd as possible so that you can identify and use the right customizable systems, tools, and routines best suited for you. 

3. Always have a positive mindset.

Volumes have been written about the power of a positive mindset. You should develop this mindset not only in your workplace but in every sphere of your life. Some people seem to nurture perpetual grievances in their lives. Only negative things will be visible to them, thanks to their selective blindness. These folks cannot succeed in their endeavors. Negativity is a sure-loser attribute. You may have a grotesque argument that there are a few negative-minded people who have succeeded in their lives. The answer is that if they had developed a positive mindset, they might have accomplished bigger Himalayan feats. So, train your mind to have a positive outlook always. Once you succeed in developing such a positive attitude, you will see remarkable progress in your journey.

So, if you want to become a high performer, you should focus on these three steps. These steps will illuminate your path to success in your career or entrepreneurial journey.

Thursday, October 24, 2024

Can You Remain Focused Even When Things Are Not Working as Expected?

Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur, you should remain focused. Otherwise, success may keep eluding you. But when things are going differently than expected, you may find focusing difficult or inconceivable. According to success science, it is not impossible but it may be difficult for most folks. This post gives a few tips to remain focused throughout your career, entrepreneurial, or life journey so you can take long and positive strides. To put it differently, focus can bolster the chances of your success by several notches.


Of course, failure is not a bugaboo; it is an experience that can teach several lessons. But you cannot afford to remain unfocused on your tasks just because you need not fear failure. Never forget that being unfocused is the grotesque root of failure. It can lead to burnout as well. So, please reprogram your mind suitably, learn from your failures, and practice focusing. Remember that consistent practice will help you master the process. In addition, aiming to succeed without learning to focus is akin to trying to reach a destination by a leaking boat.

The following are a few tips to aid you in this learning process.

1. Only insane people will trade their focus for a useless barrage of distractions. Of course, by this definition, almost 75% of the folks are insane. Just to let you know the intention is not to offend anyone. But the fact remains that if you allow distractions to eat away your focus or time, you will never be able to achieve your goal  So, whenever you find yourself succumbing to the temptations induced by distractions, unplug your mind from them and bring it back to the task you have undertaken. You'll need to take this step carefully and consciously. Another point that is of paramount importance is that you must do this consistently. In due course of time, this will become an automated habit.

2. Develop an interest in what you do. Whether you are a career aspirant or an entrepreneur, you must develop a passion to achieve the goals you have set. Passion will drive you to acquire the required skills. Skill and focus intertwine and help you win big. Importantly, passion will become so great a trigger that you will never allow distractions to mar your journey. 

But how can you develop an interest in what you do? Even if you do not like the tasks involved, keep telling yourself that you like them. Imagine as though you are enjoying doing them. As you keep taking these steps, you will very soon start liking the tasks. Even neuroscience corroborates this. To put it differently, you are waving a wand which is neurological in nature, to develop an interest in your tasks. 

Another method is to create challenges such as increasing the speed of execution of the tasks, perfecting the outcomes, and so on. Even small wins in these challenges will help create interest in the tasks involved in your career or entrepreneurial journey.

3. Do a reality check periodically. This includes jotting down the number of times you get distracted and how you win over such situations. Be brutally honest while taking this step. But why this exercise? This will help you in your efforts to bring down the number of occasions when you succumb to temptations. Importantly, rewiring the thought patterns in your mind and having a positive mindset will become easier. 

In summary, make all-out efforts to detox your mind from distractions and remain focused even when you find that things are not working out as expected. Never forget that focus and focus alone coupled with purposeful action will get you the extraordinary rewards and results you desire to have.

Sunday, October 6, 2024

What Should You Do If the Workplace Ambiance Is Misleading.

You have attended a job interview and are waiting for the result. When the HR manager tells you you have been appointed, your tone is undiluted cordiality while expressing your thanks. You want to enjoy every moment lest should you feel later that you have wasted such an ebullient and celebration-worthy occasion. But you detect just one flaw. The ambiance in that workplace is singularly excellent, beautiful, posh, and sophisticated, too good to believe. The reason is that the turnover of the company pales in comparison with the competing entities in the field. You scent a mystery. So, you are in a quandary about whether to accept the job believing that all is well with the company, or decline the offer politely. Stepping over some grim precipice is the last thing you may want in life and particularly, in your career. In this context, you don't need to be dejected or indecisive. The following points may help.

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Employee and Employer: A Bitter-Sweet Love Story

You are a job aspirant. Having come across a suitable opening, you apply for the job. Your C.V. is so impressive that you immediately get a call for an interview. You attend the interview and are appointed as well. You undergo an orientation training that cements your bonding with the company. After that, you start working for the company. In other words, you get cozy with the company.

You complete all the tasks entrusted to you perfectly. You give suggestions as well to improve the output of the company. So, your employer develops a liking for you. This is a sweet love story.

Familiarity breeds contempt.

Very soon, people on your team and other employees find fault with you. This may be due to jealousy. Or you may be going overboard and in your enthusiasm to improve your reputation further, committing a few mistakes. In your eagerness and obsession to prove your mettle and to beat others in the race, you may commit the solecism of prioritizing wrongly or omitting a few vital aspects while carrying out your tasks. This may prove to be expensive for the company. Now, your employer may start disliking you or may even begin hating you. The love story, which was originally sweet, has now turned into a bitter one. 

Another scenario.

Noticing your efficiency, your employer may start dumping more work on your platter. You have all along been enjoying the appreciation showered upon you. Now when you have to do more work, you find that your work-life balance is in jeopardy. You start hating your employer. Thus begins the bitter chapter of the love story.

Should an employer-employee relationship always be a bitter-sweet love story?

To this question, the answer is: It need not be. The question now is: As an employee, what should you do to maintain a consistently cordial relationship with your employer? A few tips may help.

1. Never nurture an obsession to impress your employer. As an employee, you have to work to your optimum potential and there should not be any compromise on this. But while carrying out your tasks, you should have the company's good in your mind. Earning the employer's appreciation is secondary and you will get it automatically if you carry out your tasks sincerely and with the utmost focus.

2. Do not always be expecting appreciation. Some of the employers are stingy and they do not appreciate even those who perform well. According to them, employees get their remuneration and it compensates much more than their output. So, don't get addicted to appreciative remarks. This means that when you don't get an appreciation for your good work, you must not allow your buoyancy to diminish. Remember that the appreciative words of such stingy employers are just formal proclamations and are devoid of hearty effusiveness. 

At the same time, these employers will always take advantage of every opportunity to find faults. Expecting appreciation from these employers is akin to expecting inanimate things to show gratitude.

3. Don't try to monopolize appreciation. You want to climb the career ladder quickly. This does not mean that you and you alone should get appreciation. There may be a few other employees like you who may be nurturing similar aspirations. They may also be performing as good as you, if not better. They also deserve appreciation, so you should not be envious of them. The only advice experts give is that you should carry out your tasks with the utmost sincerity and focus without worrying about the appreciation of your employer. It is better if you continue to be companionable with those employees because their eagerness to perform well will help in keeping your motivation level high.

4. Keep your enthusiasm alive. Regardless of whether you get appreciation from your employer or not, you should not allow your enthusiasm to come down. Enthusiasm is like a nasty precipice. If you do not motivate yourself regularly, you may slip and it may result in troubles in your workplace. Of course, your relationship with your employer will get strained also. So, employ all your resources and keep your enthusiasm intact.

If you use the above tips, you will find that the relationship between you and your employer need not be a bitter-sweet love story. It will always be a sweet love story.

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Are You an Employee? Understand This Career Math

Quick career growth may be the aspiration of almost every employee and you may not be an exception. Of course, this is not a solipsistic attitude and there is nothing unethical about it. But to achieve this aim, you must first understand what is popularly known as "Career Math." You may like to discover what this means and how to go about it.

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

How to Leverage Your Productivity to Climb up the Career Ladder?

Like all employees, you should climb the career ladder quickly. You are aware that the management of your company expects you to achieve optimum productivity. But whether you know how to leverage your productivity to the fullest extent is a big question.

Monday, May 27, 2024

Continue To Be Mr. Lazy But Be An Asset To Your Company

You are Mr. Lazy but you have big dreams on your career front. When you discuss these dreams with your colleagues or others, you face ridicules because the general conception is that those who are lazy and are not ready to put in hard work can never succeed. Are they right? Or can you achieve your career goals despite being lazy? The answer is: You can achieve success even if you are lazy. This answer may surprise everyone. But there are a few strategies by which you can ensure fructification of your big dreams. Now, what are the strategies? This post provides you with the details.


You can help your company grow by leaps and bounds.

The above statement may surprise you. You may think "I am lazy and I hate doing any work. How can I help my company grow? The answer to your doubts is: You can become a hacker. You may again think that hacking is a dirty word. True. Everyone considers hacking as unethical. And rightly so. What we are talking about is growth hacking

How can you do hacking and help your company grow?

You can create more and more demand for the products or services your companiy offers. This statement may not surprise you but may shock you. You may start thinking "Should I do door-to-door campaigning or become a sales person and create demand for what my company has to offer?" No. You need not become a sales person or do door-to-door marketing. On the contrary, you can create more and more demand by providing great ideas for advertising the products or services your company has to offer.

What is the purpose of advertising? It is to make more and more people, and especially potential customers know about your products or services. This is what marketers also do. So, in conclusion, advertising is also marketing. Andrew Chen, one of the top tech essayists, says in an article “Growth hackers are a hybrid of marketer and coder, one who looks at the traditional question of “How do I get customers for my product?.”

If you come out with innovative ideas for advertising the products or services your company has to offer, your company need not spend heavily on traditional marketing methods. But chances of getting spectacular results are high.

So, please continue to be Mr. Lazy but come out with great ideas for advertising a.k.a. marketing your company's products or services. This means without doing any actual or visible work, you can be a great asset to your company.

Saturday, May 11, 2024

Definite Ways To Power Your Job Search Or Career Growth

If you are anxious that you are not able to career growth is not to the expected levels, you should find out the ways that will help in moving your career graph northwards. True, there are as many ways or even more, than the number of experts out there. But there are a few definite steps that can certainly help you in such a situation. Let us find out more about these steps.


1. Re-visit your planning.

You may have made out a profile and according to you, the profile is great and will certainly appeal to potential employers. But remember the dictum that the scope for improving your profile always remains. This means that getting complacent about your profile or your plans will prove to be detrimental to your career growth. So, try to improve your profile and do better planning for your job search. Acquiring or developing complementary skills is a great way to expand the scope of your job search or career growth.

2. Your career as well as career growth is your responsibility.

You cannot expect any one else to shoulder the burden of achieving your career goals. You cannot expect a Messiah or Angel to descend from the Heavens to hand over an employment letter. Or the CEO of your company will not knock your doors during midnight to congratulate you with the message that you have been elevated to the next level. Of course, these things can happen only if you are an extraordinary candidate or employee. In short, it is your sole responsibility to put forth the best efforts whole-heartedly. 

3. Equip Yourself suitably so that you can dictate terms in the job market or in your organization.

Honing your skills and learning new ones are very important for landing a great job or climbing the rungs of the career ladder fast. Learning to articulate your thoughts and ideas clearly and impressively is one of the best ways to outshine competition. You should become a voracious reader to develop this skill. In fact, you should read books and materials on a wide range of topics including poetry, literature, bookkeeping, marketing, philosophy, theology, human resource development, politics, and what not. Remember that reading superficially is not enough. You should gain in-depth knowledge in the topics you study. Only then, you can take part in conversations confidently. 

Remember the golden words of Andrew Carnegie who said, “Nothing will bring promotion—and better still, usefulness and happiness–than culture giving you general knowledge beyond the depths of those whom you may have to deal (with). Knowledge of the gems of literature at call find a ready and profitable market in the industrial world.” So, equip yourself with abundant knowledge in various subjects.

The above are definite steps that can certainly move your career graph northwards.

Friday, May 10, 2024

What Should You Do To Take Complete Control Of Your Career

As a job-seeker, you may think that you are unlucky and that is the reason you are not landing a job. Unfortunately, the way you think is wrong because the mistake lies on you and you alone. You have to be honest to yourself to realize your shortcomings. In fact, most of those who find it difficult to land a job seem to have one big shortcoming. Of course, it is easy to overcome this but you have to make sincere and consistent efforts to surmount it. Let us find out more on this.


What is the shortcoming?

The shortcoming is getting distracted at the drop of a hat. Of course, it is difficult to overcome distractions, thanks to the endless stream of advertisements, notifications, and messages that flood your gadgets. But unless you control your temptation to get distracted by these, you cannot focus on achieving your goal of landing a good job. Here are a couple of tips to overcome this shortcoming.

1. Schedule fixed timings to read notifications, messages, etc.

Instead of reading the notifications or messages immediately, you can schedule fixed timings to go through them. For example, you can open the notifications and messages once in two or three hours. This strategy will help in avoiding frequent distractions.

2. Make use of the "accountability" trick.

You can tell your close relatives or friends that you have decided to overcome the shortcoming of getting distracted and so, they should point out or rebuff you when you open the messages or notifications. This strategy is popularly known as the "accountability" trick. No one likes to get rebuffed frequently. So, you can gradually overcome the shortcoming of getting distracted.

Once you surmount this issue, you will find that your focusing capabilities have vastly improved. This will go a long way in achieving your goal of landing a good job. In short, you can take complete control of your career.

Saturday, January 13, 2024

Career Lessons You Can Learn From Your Family Situations

Most of us humans assume that we are a glorified creation though, in reality, we are similar to Raccoons that are associated mainly with characteristics such as mystery and secrecy. The reason behind this assertion is that we chase only shiny and exciting things and mysteriously, do not recognize what is immediately available to us. This is perhaps the reason why we do not learn from the non-shiny sources very much around us. One such source from which we and more particularly, career seekers and those who desire to climb the rungs of their career ladder fast can learn a lot is our family situations. In fact, the lessons we can learn from our family situations can help us surmount the labyrinth of complex issues we may face during the course of executing our career-related tasks efficiently. Let us find out more on this. 


Are you happy at your workplace?

Not all employees are happy at their workplace. If you are an employee working for a company, do an honest introspection to know if you are happy with your workplace. A survey of employees of various companies has revealed that some of them do not like their bosses, a few others are not happy with their peers or those who work under them, and of course, there are employees who hate the ambiance of their workplace. In short, it seems that to find a workplace that is perfect in all respects is almost impossible. In this context, experts say that you can learn a few lessons from your family situations so that you can have peace of mind despite all the negatives at your workplace. 

What should you do if you do not like your boss, peers, or some of those who work under you? You cannot adopt the "Nazi method" as E.M. Forster puts it. If you adopt this method and kill them, you may have to face criminal proceedings. What should you do then? Just put up with them or tolerate them. Of course, you have the option of quitting the company and joining a new company. But can you be sure that you will not face the same issues in the new company as well? In other words, you must be wary while making such big decisions.

How can family situations help you learn your career-related lessons?

1. Prior to your marriage, you might have nurtured several dreams. But not all your dreams come true. To put this differently, you integrate your dreams with your family life. Bluntly put, you choose only a few among a host of your dreams because they are only accomplishable in your life. 

In the same manner, you must be ready to integrate your career goals with the goals of your company. Such a synergy alone will help you climb the rungs of your career ladder. Never forget the fact that the top brass of your company is focused only on the company's goals and not on your ambitions. Also remember that you are not indispensable. If you quit the company or if the management shows you the exit, there may be others who may fill the void. In fact, your exit may not create any void at all. So, integrating your goals with those of the company is very important. This is analogous to how you focus on the welfare of your family and not on your personal welfare alone.

2. Next, tolerance plays a major role in leading a peaceful family life. Similarly, you should embrace the virtue of tolerance in your workplace as well. There may be people whom you dislike but you have no other option except to tolerate them and work along with them. Mistakes are bound to happen, misunderstandings are likely to arise, and there may be disagreements at every stage. You should learn to adopt a middle path to avoid confrontations. 

Of course, it is not always possible to make consensual decisions. In such situations, a give-and-take approach will do a world of good. It may even be necessary to adopt a give-and-give approach also. But what is important is the company's growth and so, you should be ready for embracing such an approach as well. Of course, such an approach is quite common in family life also because you have to adopt a pragmatic stance to have domestic peace.

In summary, integrating your ambitions with the company's growth goals and embracing the doctrine of tolerance are the keys that can act as an open-sesame to the gateway that opens the path to your career objectives.

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

How to Become a High-Performing Employee?

Do you know a journey that never comes to an end? Yes. There is a journey that never comes to an end and it is the journey to high performance in your workplace. In fact, "high performance" is a subjective term. Further, there is always ample scope for improvement. But the skill of performing to the best of one's capability and that too, on a consistent basis is acquirable. Unfortunately, not all employees give a thought about their performance. They consider carrying out their official tasks as a boring ritual. Of course, they like the remuneration their employment gets them. Employees must realize that they can derive a number of advantages by being a high-performing employee on a consistent basis. If you become a high-performing employee, you can climb the rungs of your career ladder faster when compared to your peers. Your remuneration will keep moving northwards rapidly. You will have plenty of other opportunities in the job market as well.


The question now is how you can become a high-performing employee. According to experts, if you focus on three areas, you can certainly improve your performance significantly.

Daily actions.

High performance needs daily efforts. While making these efforts, you should particularly concentrate on your physical and mental fitness, being well-prepared and punctual for meetings, fulfilling your commitments, and so on. More importantly, you should ensure that your actions are perfectly in alignment with the targets of your company. You should embrace the dictum of accountability as well which means you should not shirk your responsibilities. 

Self-Reflection and Introspection.

You have to carry out the "self-'reflection" exercise daily. At the end of every day, try to recollect all that you did at your workplace during the course of your day. This includes how you have carried out the tasks, how you communicated with others, your behaviors, actions, and the mistakes, if any, you might have committed. This exercise provides you with excellent insights as to how you can improve your performance.

Similarly, you have to introspect at least once a week to know your shortcomings as well as strengths. While you can make optimum use of your strengths, you can overcome your shortcomings by taking appropriate steps. Consulting an expert in your areas of weakness is the best way to surmount them.

Learn, Learn, and Keep learning.

This is the most important step you should not ignore if you want to become a high-performing employee. You have to keep expanding your knowledge not only in the area in which you work but in other areas as well. Never forget the fact that the top brass of the present day companies are bullish over recognizing and rewarding employees with complementary skills. By expanding your knowledge in various fields including marketing, finance, HR, and Administration, you will be able to have a macro-level perspective encompassing all the areas. This helps you come out with unimaginably appropriate solutions for any situation. 

These are a few tips to become a high-performing employee. Embrace these tips and catapult yourself to a top position in your company.

Thursday, January 4, 2024

How to become laser-focused and achieve your career goals?

Experts have conducted innumerable researches related to the process of achieving goals. Though there are differences in how they approach the topic, almost everyone agrees on one particular point. The point is that the foremost ingredient that can get you success is FOCUS. Unfortunately, all of us keep several items on our platter and so, focusing has become tremendously difficult. Thanks to our susceptibility to get diverted, we are either not able to achieve the goals we have set or there is an inordinate delay in reaching the destination. The question is how we can become laser-focused in life and more particularly, in achieving our career goals. 


A study of the science of how our brains work reveals that we can train it suitably and make it efficient enough to quickly process even the difficult task of focusing. You have to get this right because it opens a vista of endless possibilities in your life.

The human brain is a wonderful machine and psychologists have done extensive studies about its neuro-plasticity. According to them, it is the malleability of the brain that helps us in embracing changes. For training the mind and enhancing its efficiency, you must make sincere efforts for 21 days. Of course, even after this period, you have to ensure that your brain perpetually retains this efficiency.

Once you have trained your brain and improved its efficiency, you can move on to the next step of developing a laser-like focus. Let us find how you should go about this.

Don't succumb to this temptation.

Let us assume that you have achieved a small goal. So, you may have a natural temptation to set several goals. You should avoid this temptation because this grave mistake drastically dilutes your focus. It is not that you should not have several goals. But you should prioritize and choose the biggest and the most important among them. Why is it important to zero in on the biggest goal? Because it will change your career trajectory itself. 

What next after you zero in on your life-changing goal?

Once you zero in on the biggest goal, you should list out the top 3 action steps you should take that can lead you towards the goal. You should fix a reasonable deadline for completing these action steps. The steps you plan should be purposeful and should completely align with your goal. 

After completing these three steps, you will find yourself prettily marching ahead towards your goal. You can then plan the next three action steps and so on until you reach your goal.

In summary, the best way to become laser-focused to achieve your career goal is to avoid having and trying to pursue several goals simultaneously. Choosing the most important goal and pursuing it relentlessly is undoubtedly the best way.