The key to long-term career success is to become a top performer at your current job; even if it is not your ideal job. This is the most important piece of advice I can share with anyone who is willing to listen. Why is this so important? Because once you get in the habit of being a top performer at your current job, that will be your default for any job you get in the future. Below are three things anyone could start doing right away to become a high achiever at work.
1. Build Relationships
This is perhaps the easiest, but most powerful thing one can do to achieve success at any job. This is often overlooked in favor of maximizing productivity. The bottom line is that top performing employees are trusted by supervisors, know their peers well, and understand their clients. All those qualities require a commitment to appropriate social engagement in order to build relationships and gain trust. To get started, you can get in the habit of greeting people regularly. Wish them a good morning or evening, and respectfully ask how their week is going. Make an effort to get to know the people around you a little bit more. This can even be done digitally over chat or digital events. Remember to keep interactions brief so that you are not interrupting their day or yours. As you put this into practice, you will notice that coworkers and clients become more comfortable engaging with you. Over time, they will remember you when new projects come up. They will also be more compelled to give you a positive performance review.
2. Prioritize
Not all tasks are created equally. Top performers know how to identify those that matter the most and go after them, not because they are the easiest, but because accomplishing those tasks gives them the biggest return on their time investment. Why? Because they understand that doing everything is impossible and exhausting! So, as you draft your to-do list this week, pick a couple of things that will have the biggest impact on your performance. Those tasks that will make your boss/coworkers/staff notice. The more you practice prioritizing your tasks every single week, the easier identifying the most important ones will become. Once you get into the habit of knocking out your more important tasks week after week, you will notice an uptick in recognition for your hard work. And the best part about it is that you will not be working “harder,” but definitely working smarter.
3. Challenge Yourself
Top performers make themselves uncomfortable, ALL THE TIME. To become the person that steps up to any challenge and is ready to take on additional responsibilities at work, you have to practice. Practice by challenging yourself in your personal life, learning something new, and making yourself uncomfortable. If you make it a habit to do this outside of work, stepping up at work will become second nature. So, go on, take that dance class, sign up for that race, learn a new skill, do something completely outside of your comfort zone – and once that becomes comfortable, try something new. Once you learn to embrace the discomfort, you’ll notice you will naturally take on new challenges at work, volunteer for new projects, and speak up at meetings – fearlessly. And that alone, will make you stand out.
The takeaway
Don’t wait for your dream job to become a top performer. Start becoming a top performer now so that once you get to your dream job, you will naturally perform at a higher level. Put these three simple things into practice and you will notice a significant change on how others perceive you at work, but most importantly about how you feel about your performance at work. Bonus – becoming a top performer now will set you up to get to that dream job faster than you even imagined.
For more career advice check out Corporate Minority Career Insights.
