Great success is built from doing things on purpose, and over time, in a few key areas.
In my writing and workshops, I have been talking about this in terms of: Your Business, Your Visibility, Your People, and Your life.
I’ve realized that it is even less complicated than that.
So I’m changing the “terms” I use to describe this practical approach to success to be: DO Better, LOOK Better and Connect Better. And in this issue of The Desired Outcome, I am going to explain what I mean by that.
(You will also notice that all the posts in my blog fit into one of these categories.)
But before I get into that, one over-arching thing to keep in mind is that:
All success is created from action.
So if you follow Azzarello Group, you can count on getting lots of practical ideas and suggestions for taking specific actions on these topics in future issues, workshops, additional member resources, and in my blog.
DO Better
DO Better is the part of success that is about DOING. Although there are many components to building success, none of them are ever at the expense of, or instead of, DOING remarkable and exceptional things.
We all know people who are managing their career instead of being good at their job. I am NEVER advocating that. We tend not like or respect those people, and they are certainly not creating any kind of meaningful success.
DO Better has three main components: Results, Being YOU and Making Room (for all the other things you need to do).
Results:
Excellent results is the required foundation for anything else you do.
Set goals, achieve them and measure them. Then set bigger goals and exceed them. Excellence is key.
As you advance, the kinds of results you deliver must evolve as well. Make sure you are focused on delivering and measuring the right things at the right levels as your career advances and your business grows. It changes – don’t miss it.
Results evolve over time to be less about the project and the work and the deliverables, and more about the systems and processes, and developing the managers and the organization underneath you.
Doing Better is also about developing your Personal Leadership Strategy in a very purposeful way to be about leading the people, and taking responsibility for creating the right working environment for your team.
Whatever level you are at, you must consistently deliver the right excellent results at every step along the way.
Be YOU
One of the biggest factors in being highly successful is something that sounds simple to say, but is not easy to do:
Figure out what you are really good at and DO THAT.
Being who you really are, figuring out what you are naturally good at and then putting yourself in that “power alley” or “sweet spot” as often as possible is what will make you most successful.
It’s important not to take your strengths for granted, which most people tend to do because your strengths come easily to you, so they don’t feel “impressive”. It’s important to remember that that doesn’t mean you strengths are not impressive to others, and that they are not really valuable.
Build on your naturals strengths instead of wasting time trying to ‘fix” yourself. You will create more value, and be more successful if you spend most of your time doing things you are really good at.
The more you are YOU, the more effective you will be. When you are really being yourself, it shows. When you share and live your core values, people recognize it, they respect it, and they respond to it.
It makes them feel comfortable. It is so much more powerful than putting on a “work personality” or a false “executive persona”. It builds trust and loyalty and makes you more effective as a leader.
That’s another reason why it’s important to find and create work circumstances that let you be yourself. It takes a lot of energy to turn yourself into someone else to go to work every day.
If you can take your real self to work you will not only be more effective, buy you’ll enjoy it much more. You will have more energy, and you will see your success grow more quickly than ever.
Make Room
It is very easy to get consumed in the activities that our current jobs require of us.
One of the fundamental things that is necessary to achieve great success is to make a specific effort to get on top of your workload and “make room” for other things.
You will never make room if you stay stuck in the work.
A big part of the solution is being ruthless about setting priorities and NOT doing everything.
Successful executives learn to live with the feeling of “not doing everything” and they are successful because of this, not in spite of it.
They can apply their energy to delivering excellent results on a few critical things vs. spreading it too thin over “everything” and missing the chance for real excellence in a few key areas.
Part of it is managing your energy. Knowing what fuels it and what drains it, and doing things on purpose to increase your energy.
Part of it is simply mastering your personal productivity and always being on a mission to seek and destroy the chaos that creeps into your time and your organization.
You need to consider “making room” to be an action item unto itself – a task to be completed and measured.
You will find that if you do this, it is like priming the pump. You make room for 2 hours to think strategically and find you can eliminate 6 hours of work per week by doing something a better way. It builds and builds.
And it is SO important to make room for other things, or to just enjoy your life more. You will be most effective if you focus on maki g room as a key task.
LOOK Better
Sadly good work does not stand on its own. LOOK Better is about creating positive visibility for your work and your team, and building credibility with all your stakeholders. You will blocked if you leave this to chance.
Credibility
Credibility is at the heart of what I mean by “LOOK Better”. Building and Maintaining personal and professional credibility is a never-ending action item. (And it’s one of the things you need to “make room” for!)
Credibility builds trust, and trust helps you get more done, get more resources, and go faster. (So it helps you deliver excellent results, too)
It helps you defend your budget and your honor, and it helps you avoid wasting time in stupid discussions like “why are you doing this? Or why are you spending money on that?”
All executives have the task of building and maintaining personal and professional credibility in addition to delivering results. If you are not paying specific attention to this, you need to.
Visibility
It is important to find ways to create positive visibility for the work that you and your team deliver. This is not just a publicity exercise. Visibility fuels effectiveness.
Toiling away in obscurity waiting to be recognized and appreciated simply doesn’t work, and you will get the short end of the stick when it comes to resources, budget and getting your ideas implemented.
It’s usually the disasters that are highly visible. Often, the generally perceived view of great work is that “nothing alarming happens”.
You need to find ways to make your work, your process, and your team visible in a positive and productive way.
Personal Brand
You have a personal brand whether you know it or not.
Your Brand is what other’s say it is based on the behaviors they see consistently from you. Don’t leave this to chance.
It’s important to put some thought and energy into building your Personal Brand. This was a valuable lesson I wish I learned much earlier in my career.
Having a strong brand helps you be consistently clear minded in your business decisions, and build confidence and trust with your team your peers, your management and your customers.
Define it, and do things consistently to support it.
Stakeholder Communications
Finally, you need to develop a communication plan for your Stakeholders and Influencers.
Think broadly about who they all are and build a communication strategy to present the right things to the right people in ways that matter to them.
You need to take some time to understand who all the people are who depend on you (stakeholders) and who have a say in what happens to you (influencers).
You need to understand what they care about and proactively communicate with them, in a high value, not-annoying way, to create positive visibility and build credibility.
Connect Better
Connect Better is about the ongoing process of understanding and making the right connections which are going to provide the broad support base you will need to build your success.
Imagination
One of the most important things you can do for yourself is to find ways to fuel your imagination. Think about the fact that your great success might come from something you haven’t thought of yet.
How will you think of it?
To fuel your imagination you need to meet people, go places, and do stuff.
You need to connect with people who are at different levels (above and below), in different businesses, and different places than where you ordinarily spend your time.
You need to find ways to challenge your thinking about what is possible, particularly what is possible for you.
If you never imagine it, you won’t do it.
The Right Experience
You can’t expect your current job to give you all the experience you will need for your desired job. You need to learn about your desired job and go find experiences that will help you get there.
Just because you don’t have a particular title on your resume doesn’t mean that you can’t have experience in that role before you get there officially.
Do your next job before you are in it. Practice it. Learn it. Get experience. This is another thing you need to make room for!
Mentors
The most successful people get a lot of help.
Never fail or even suffer by yourself. If you are moving up, by definition, you will be in over your head from time to time.
The people whose egos prevent them asking for help when they need it, stall in their success.
The people who utilize every smart idea they can get their hands on, and seek out and accept help, get ahead.
Mentors have played a huge role in my success.
Authentic Networking
Highly successful people have big personal and professional networks that are highly functional.
Most people are not “natural networkers”. So this is another area where it helps to do things on purpose to build and maintain your personal network as a critical asset in your success.
Authentic networking is about staying in touch with people you already know and like, connecting with new people for real reasons that you both care about, and always giving something back to the people in your network.
Be Generous
Successful people get lots of help. Generous people make people want to help them. Be open, be appreciative, acknowledge the success and contributions of others, and make sure to laugh.
It takes more energy to be mean spirited. And then it requires even more energy to do things on your own without help!
Generosity is fuel for your success.
I hope you have found some useful ideas that will help you do something specific to build value in your career and business and enjoy your life.
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About Patty
Patty Azzarello was the youngest general manager at HP ever at the age of 33. She ran a $1B software business at the age of 35 and was a CEO for the first time at the age of 38. Patty is known for her personal leadership qualities, her straightforward and practical manner, and her genuine interest in helping people to achieve their own version of great success.
Today Patty Azzarello is the CEO of Azzarello Group, www.AzzarelloGroup.com a unique services organization that helps companies develop and motivate their top performers and grow their business.
Azzarello Group delivers practical, experience-based tools, through products and services including talent management programs, leadership workshops, online products, public speaking, and working with management teams on putting their strategy into action.
