Push Mediocrity to the Side: 4 Ways to be Excellent at your Job
What's in the Blog?
Some people are okay just being okay. Some people are okay being good enough to earn decent ratings on their annual reviews, & slowly moving their way up the corporate ladder based on their tenure, not their talent. BUT THAT’S NOT YOU.
You don’t just want to be okay. You don’t just want to be good. You want to be EXCELLENT at what you do. You don’t want to slowly climb the ladder - you’d rather push it over & take the elevator. YES, my friend, YES!!
Here are 4 ways to be EXCELLENT at your job:
1. Seek Discomfort
To be excellent, you need to invite discomfort into your life & see it as the key to learning, growth, & becoming the best version of yourself. Try things you haven’t tried before & do things that don’t necessarily come easy to you. AND, notice that I’m not saying “allow discomfort”, I don’t just want you to sit back & wait for discomfort to find you. I want you to step up & actively SEEK it!! I want you to see discomfort as a good thing. A sign of learning, growth, forward progress, & success. When you perceive discomfort, I want you to think ‘opportunity’. When you feel discomfort I want you to think ‘I’m growing’. I want you to get comfortable being uncomfortable.
You need to get out of your comfort zone because THAT is where learning & growth happens. THAT is where innovation & creativity live. THAT is how we make an even greater impact in our communities & the world. If you seek discomfort, you will get to where you want to go, in business & in life, FASTER.
How do I do this?
Adopt a growth mindset. This is the belief that you can grow & develop over time. You are not fixed, or stuck. Having a growth mindset means you shift your perspective, & look at challenges differently. Here are examples of having a fixed vs. growth mindset:
Choose to have a growth mindset. Practice it daily.
Coaching. Working with a coach is a GREAT way to help you get outside of your comfort zone.
2. Turn it up a Notch
To be excellent, you need to refuse to play small - the world is too big, & the impact you can make is too great to stay within the safety of your comfort zone. I want you to be BIG & BOLD in how you live your life, lead your team, & build your business.
You need to fearlessly enter uncharted territory, & do the things that have never been done before. Don’t sit back & let things happen to you. STEP UP & take an active role in deliberately building the life, business, team, & culture that you believe is right.
How do I do this?
Don’t do things just because that’s how they’ve always been done. Make it a habit to ask yourself & your team:
“Is this the best way to do this?”
“What can we do to make it better?”
“How can we turn it UP a notch?”
“What’s the ONE THING we need to do today to move the business forward?”
Analyze your tasks and processes - determine which ones you can:
Automate (then automate them!)
Delegate (then delegate them!)
Simplify (then simplify them!)
Remove (then STOP doing them!)
Coaching - 1:1 Coaching is a great way to take your career & life to the next level.
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SIGN UP3. Choose Owner’s Mindset
To be excellent, you need to THINK & ACT like an owner. Regardless of what your actual role or title in the organization is, you can choose to behave as if at the end of the day, you are responsible for the health & success of your team & the business.
You need to take OWNERSHIP over what you see, what you hear, & what you do: this includes projects, objectives, client satisfaction, team morale & so much more.
Having an owner’s mindset will increase your motivation, commitment, engagement, adaptability & resiliency (no joke - which is why it’s important for you to cultivate this within yourself AND within your team - it’s incredible what happens when everyone at a company has owner’s mindset!). It makes your work so much more interesting & fulfilling. Instead of just sitting back & waiting for people to tell you what to do, you step up & proactively find areas of the business where you can provide value. This requires you to take ownership to find out where the company is headed (the vision), how you make revenue, how you lose revenue, who your ideal customers are, what keeps them up at night, etc. Having an Owner’s Mindset will not only make your work more fulfilling, it will lead to promotions & opportunities like you can’t believe.
How do I do this?
You have to OWN learning about your company, looking at it holistically, & then thinking & acting like an owner. To do this, embrace curiosity:
Ask questions so you have a deep understanding & holistic view of your company. It is not the responsibility of others to tell you - it’s YOUR responsibility to own this learning!
Cultivate a deep connection with your company’s mission & a deep desire to achieve your company’s vision.
Get in the habit of asking yourself: “Knowing what I know now, if I were the owner, what would I do?” Let the answer to this guide your actions.
4. Don’t Lead Alone
To be excellent, you can’t do what you do alone. You need a community (another term for this is ‘network’ but I am partial to ‘community’ so that’s what I’ll use going forward). You need a community you can connect with, learn from, be challenged by, celebrate with, & lean on. You need a community who inspires you to think bigger, get creative, & keep reaching for the next level.
Finding & curating this community may be the single hardest part of being excellent at your job, but it is absolutely the most important. As humans, when we invest in social support systems, we are better equipped to thrive in stressful situations. To be the most successful in your efforts, you need a support system. You need a community that will listen, answer your questions, inspire you, spark new ideas, & erase those feelings of loneliness & fill you with confidence & fulfillment.
Your community will help with the wheels in your life - they will keep you from reinventing & spinning them (get it?! ). You don’t have all of the answers, & that’s a-okay. The sooner you can accept that, leverage your team’s talents & your community to discover the answers you need, the more excellent you will become!
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Alright Leader, you are doing a great job! If you have any questions or need anything at all, please do not hesitate to reach out and meet with a coach.
Pssst...I LOVE connecting with & growing my community! Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn - see you there! 🤗
