Have you wondered how high-performing professionals do it? Elon Musk, for example, shared some core values for being effective with his employees. The good news is that you don’t have to be Elon Musk or someone famous to be a high performer. It all boils down to your daily habits and they should include:
1. Network
You don’t build networks in a vacuum. Collecting cards at a networking event isn’t how you build relationships! If your coworkers don’t know who you are as a person, they are free to make plenty of assumptions. Instead of letting the rumor mill churn out gossip about you: take a few minutes each day to connect with someone. In less than 10 minutes a day, you can learn about others and develop a deep network. The most important place for you to build your professional relationships is where you are right now.
2. Work productively
There is a difference between being busy and being productive. High-performance professionals realize that working longer hours and keeping ‘busy’ is not the path to success. The ability to be effective and make your energy count towards an actionable goal is critical. We are only blessed with so much time in this life – use it wisely. ‘Busyness’ doesn’t get you ahead, being intentionally productive will.
3. Develop a fail forward attitude
Instead of cringing at every mistake, high-performance professionals adopt a ‘fail forward’ attitude. Success is a process of learning through mistakes. While winning feels great – you don’t learn as much. High-performance professionals understand that the biggest breakthroughs often happen after their biggest failures.
4. Build on your strengths
We are all gifted with our own unique set of strengths and weaknesses. By focusing on your weaknesses, you cannot ever fully develop your strengths! Instead of trying to fill all of your gaps, surround yourself with people who are good at things you aren’t. That is the essence of a great team. High-performance professionals embrace their weaknesses so they can mitigate them – not so they can be excellent at everything.
5. Embrace imperfection
Spending your time trying to achieve perfection is the fast track to insanity. Perfection is not obtainable. Those who are chronic overachievers tend to suffer from anxiety, depression, and stress-related illnesses. High-performance professionals embrace imperfection from a place of authenticity. Accepting who you are: the good, bad and indifferent is so critically important in your path to fulfillment.