Your old school reports might have said “Could do better.” Perhaps you believe you can be better in your role than you are. Or maybe you’ve been inspired to improve yourself by watching a colleague you admire.
If you’re ready to add some serious power to your career by becoming a high performer, these are the habits which will make it happen.
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Know your why.
You don’t want to be a high performer just because you ‘feel like it.’ There’s something driving you, isn’t there? It’s not just a need for excellence, although that’s part of it. You’re out to achieve something that matters. High performers know what matters to them, and they use it as their measuring stick when they consider a choice of actions. Know your purpose and it will keep you on track to achieve what you aim for.
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Generate energy.
In Brendon Burchard’s book, High-Performance Habits: How Extraordinary People Become That Way, he says high performers “recharge themselves throughout the day, between activities.” They break their day into chunks of work with short breaks in between. This helps them refresh and recharge before each new piece of work so they can maintain their high level of focus and performance. This aligns with our ultradian rhythm – the energy cycles our brains go through each day. We can maintain a high level of activity for around 90-minutes before it slows for around the next 20. When you work in alignment with your body, you boost productivity, improve creativity and boost your energy resources.
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Focus on strengths.
With an eye on moving forward and achieving goals, high performers know their own strengths and use them. However, they also recognise strengths in others and allow those to shine, too. It’s your strengths that give you energy and confidence, letting you work harder and with purpose. Unless there is a specific need for it, they save their personal development needs for downtimes, so it doesn’t interfere with the task on hand.
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Be accountable.
High performers hold themselves accountable for their results. They own them, good or bad. It’s about commitment and delivering on a promise of work completion to a certain standard. It’s about communication and expectations. If you’re not accountable, it’s ‘someone else’s fault’ and there’s no need for you to change. By being accountable for their results, they open themselves up to improvement. Accountability gives high performers the opportunity to learn from failure, celebrate successes and look for new ideas in the process they’ve just followed.
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Look outward.
Although high performers are self-aware and reflect on their own performance each day, they aren’t self-focused. They are acutely aware of being part of an eco-system, so they spend time observing and listening. They ask for input or feedback and pay attention to it. They watch how their people are performing and behaving and manage it. High performers continually absorb information from everyone around them and apply it to their decisions and actions. That’s how they learn to work with and influence people towards the course of action that leads to their goals.
These five habits will certainly power up your career, but there is one more thing that is just as important, and that is coaching. You’ll find that most high performers have worked with coaches to perfect those habits. I can do that for you. If you believe you’re someone who ‘could do better’ and is keen to try, let’s work together. Give me a call and get your career moving.
