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I’ve been a working person for several decades, in dozens of different places, environments and roles. I’ve been a senior manager, a leader and an innovator. I’ve also been a pot-washer, I’ve emptied bins, shovelled mud, wiped the bottoms of old people. I’ve worked in factories, warehouses and fields.
During that time I’ve interviewed and recruited dozens of people. I’ve occasionally ‘let people go’.
And throughout all of this, the same simple things have set the high-achievers apart from the also-rans. The winners from the losers. And it’s not the school or university they went to, nor the amount of money they or their parents had. It’s not how tall or good-looking they are.
The most successful people I’ve worked with have consistently done the basics right, day after day.
The basics of how to make a positive impact in life haven’t changed. If you’re in a new job, or even your first job, start with the basics, get them right every day, and you’ll be miles ahead of most people before you ever have to start thinking about optimisation, productivity or marginal gains.
Alongside all the productivity blogs, there are a great many blogs about how to turn $10000 into $10 million. Okay great, but I don’t have a spare $10k and if I did I certainly wouldn’t have the freedom to invest it in a hare-brained scheme. But the good news is that for everyone, whatever your situation, the basics are free, and available to you right now. No clickbait, and no annual fee. Do these, and I can guarantee your lot will improve (please note - not an actual guarantee…)
“It don’t take money, don’t take fame, don’t need no credit car to ride this train”
(Huey Lewis – The Power of Love)
If you’re a listener to the excellent High Performance Podcast, you will have heard this mantra before – world-class basics are the foundation for any kind of success in any field.
But what are those basics? I believe there are ten key things that you can apply to just about any career, any profession, any walk of life, that will set you up for success.
Be on time, all the time. Always meet deadlines, always get to meetings. If you can’t do that, say so well in advance, and say why. This is massively under-rated and in these days of back-to-back meetings and hybrid working, we’ve got used to starting meetings late and being polite when people stumble into the room (physically or virtually) seven minutes in.
But everyone remembers the person who’s always late. It doesn’t give the impression that you’re so important you can’t fit everything in, or that you’ve optimised everything to the max. It gives the impression of someone who can’t tell the time, and/or doesn’t care about the time of others. Don’t be that person.
In a similar vein, don’t say ‘conscious of time…’ when your presentation is about to over-run, and then continue to say exactly the same things at exactly the same pace that you were already going to. It’s disrespectful and you’ve already lost the audience.
Be kind. Why wouldn’t you? You don’t need to advance at the expense of others, and you’ll advance yourself further if you take people with you. Help as many people as you can along the way.
Work hard – you won’t find a successful person, no matter what their latent talent or inherent advantages and opportunities, that didn’t work damn hard to get where they are. And if you don’t, less talented or well-advantaged people who do work hard will sail right past you.
Image credit - Simon (Pixabay founder)
Be honest and don’t compromise your integrity. Trust is hard-earned and easily lost. If you’re known as a person of integrity, you will be a more effective collaborator, leader and you’ll get far more done.
Be proactive. If you can see a problem that needs fixing, fix it. Or find out whether anyone has noticed it and is already fixing it. Step in when you see inappropriate behaviour. You’re honest (see above) and you have values and morals, show them and stand up for them.
Know everyone’s name, and get to know them. Connect meaningfully. Make eye contact with people. Make time to talk to people, get to know them as people and as colleagues. Know how they got to where they are and see what you can learn from them.
I once had a boss who declared that he didn’t have time to learn everyone’s name, the implication being that he was too senior and important for those kind of trivialities because he was dealing with the ‘big stuff’. Consequently, everyone thought he was an arse.
Keep learning. All the world’s knowledge is available to you! If you’re younger than about 35, you probably completely take this for granted. Not very many years ago it would have been unimaginable to have had everything the world ever discovered in the palm of your hand – now it’s right there. We used to have to go to a library and look at books. So take advantage.
Learn how to search properly, to use large-language models and to find the things you need. Read, listen, watch, understand how experts in your field got started.
Tell yourself ‘I can learn to do anything I want’ (because it’s true, you can). And you can get really good at it as well. Be prepared to learn anything even if it’s not ‘your job’.
Take responsibility. If you make a mistake (as you surely will), fess up, own it and learn from it. Work on the basis that you’re accountable to your team and your peers, not your boss. It’s a far better moral compass, means you’re more likely to do the right thing for the right reasons and all the career/boss stuff will take care of itself.
Dream. Your vision, ideas, ability to spot opportunities – these are free, and hugely valuable. Whatever your line of work, there’s room for having a vision, knowing what you want and where you’re trying to get to. As Debbie Harry sang, “Dreaming is free”.
“A salesman is got to dream – it comes with the territory” – Death of a Salesman, Arthur Miller
Do all of this and you will be miles ahead of your peers or competition, because there’s no point in looking for that extra 1%, that extra marginal gain, if you haven’t got the real basics down. That’s your foundation for a great career, and a great life.
So that’s nine basics - what’s your tenth?