Thursday, November 29, 2007

Get Ahead in Your Career This Holiday Season

Have you ever stopped to think that the year-end holiday season is one of the best times to distinguish yourself in your career?

It really is.

While others are either distracted by festivities or scrambling to meet year-end deadlines, you can easily stand out as a Rising Star. You do this by maintaining your focus on priorities that boost your value.
  1. Master Your Attention - Woody Allen once observed that half of success seems to be showing up. That may be the case, but in our opinion it's the less significant half. More important is showing up with your full attention focused on the right things.

    It's particularly important at this time of year, when your attention is easily fragmented.

    For example, you may schedule extra time with your family, yet spend much of that time thinking about the work piled up on your desk. Then when you're at work, you regret not having more quality time at home. What happens is, you not only become less productive wherever you are; but you become less satisfied as well.

    It's not enough to simply follow a schedule when it comes to your activities, you must also focus your attention on the activity you have scheduled. Mastering the ability to focus on one thing at a time is the key factor in increasing your value. When you're not the master of your attention, you can never be the master of your time.

  2. Focus on Value - You don't need to log long hours to get ahead. In today's business environment it's not the number of hours you spend at work but your productivity that matters most.

    If your results aren't good, do you think your boss will ask, "How many hours did you work last week?" Or will your boss ask, "How come your results weren't up to par?"

    When you focus on value you'll not only earn more and get promoted faster, you'll get more time off. You'll be able to leave work earlier and have more time to spend with friends and family.

    Not only that, but the quality of your time off will be better. Imagine the sense of accomplishment you'll have, knowing that your most important work is done. You'll be able to enjoy everything else more, without the stress of unfinished tasks hanging over your head.

    The way to do this, of course, is to prioritize. In order to get the important things done, you have to let some of the little things go. This is the essence of Pareto's principle - the 80-20 rule. Only 20% of your activities will account for 80% of the value of your work. Focus on this 20% and forget about the rest.

  3. Set Deadlines - You've probably heard the saying "If you need something done, give it to a busy person." It would be better to say, "If you need something done rapidly, give it to a busy person."

    Why?

    Because of Parkinson's Law, which states that "work expands to fill the time available for its completion." In other words, if you give yourself 8 hours to do a 2 hour project, it will likely take you 8 hours to get the work done.

    And while you would think that giving yourself plenty of time to accomplish a task would improve the quality of your work, that's most often not the case. Instead it tends to reduce your productivity by making you less efficient. That's because you have no motivation to work quickly.

    Jack Welch, one of the most celebrated CEOs of our time talks about the "imperative for speed" in business today. You can't afford to ignore his advice.

    To maximize your productivity, set deadlines for your most important tasks. Just be sure that you allow enough time for quality work.
Dr. Robert Karlsberg & Dr. Jane Adler are leading experts in Expert Performance and authors of How to Become a Rising Star in Your Career in 60 Days or Less. If you're ready to accelerate your career and maximize your business performance visit www.StarIn60.com for your complimentary copy of The New Route to the Top: How to Become a Rising Star in Your Career in 60 Days or Less

# posted by Daniel (Danny) : 12:09 p.m.
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Here are a few quotes of inspiration and some food for thought about work and life ... CARPE DIEM (seize the day)

"Networking is more than meeting the right people. It's about connecting with their purpose and helping them achieve their goals. It's about connectin them with their success."

  • Craig Elias: Canada's Mr. Networking

    • "So you ask “what can I do to build confidence in myself”? Start by discovering who you are (your Personal Brand), which will allow you to understand what you need to do in order to gain this confidence you seek. Once discovered, it is all about repetition, through telling yourself that you are unique and “you have nothing to lose.” Saying this will help you be more outgoing, which translates into confidence."

  • Dan Schawbel

    • "Our subconscious minds have no sense of humor, play no jokes and cannot tell the difference between reality and an imagined thought or image. What we continually think about eventually will manifest in our lives. Unfortunately most of us are completely unaware of this fact and we do not monitor our thoughts with the care needed so that we can create in our lives the results we say we want. Since the great majority of people do not feel worthy and deserving of abundant good fortune, radiant good health and total success in all areas of their lives that overriding thought pattern controls the results people get. The first order of business of anyone who wants to enjoy success in all areas of his or her life is to take charge of the internal dialogue they have and only think, say and behave in manner consistent with the results they truly desire. - Sidney Madwed

    "You cannot escape the results of your thoughts. Whatever your present environment may be, you will fall, remain or rise with your thoughts, your vision, your ideal. You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration." - James Lane Allen

    "In football you always get judged on your last game. Whoever you are, or how amazing you are, it's the last game that everyone has seen." - Thierry Henry

    "80% of the stuff you get you are never going to need again. 20% you do need, and you need to prioritize its importance."

  • Julie Mahan

    • "It takes half your life before you discover life is a do-it-yourself project." - Napoleon Hill

    "The only thing that doesn't change is change itself." - Heraclitus (You can't step into the same river twice, the old Greek said, because the water keeps moving. - If you're clinging to your old reliable tools, you're not just standing still, you're actually moving backwards from the point of view of those who are moving on with the river of technological change.)

    "The secret of man's success resides in his insight into the moods of people, and his tact in dealing with them." - J. G. Holland

    "To put distance between you and your competition, you must become more VALUABLE... not just more PRODUCTIVE."

  • E. R. Haas

    • "When one door closes another door opens; but we do often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us." - Alexander Graham Bell

    "Successful people are not necessary smarter than anyone else, they are simply more effective."

  • Ross Mackay

    • "You'll never achieve real success unless you like what you're doing."

  • Dale Carnegie