To take your life and career from ordinary to extraordinary:
• Expend
all reasonable effort.
• Concentrate
your energy on the vital few goals that will make a difference.
• Never
end your education; make learning a top priority.
• Let
business and personal ethics guide all of your actions.
• Leverage
every experience no matter how insignificant.
Ten Tips
Simple, but effective ways to leverage your time, career and life.
A willingness to learn and being open to feedback are two important traits for anyone who wants to be mentored.
For extraordinary career success, focus on fully leveraging you strengths, passions, and people skills.
The best way for leaders to influence individuals to work together is to lead by example in team settings and one-on-one with team members.
To help keep meetings on track, install a clock in every meeting or conference room. With a clock in sight meeting participants are more likely to be concise and stay on task.
To prepare for a presentation, begin with the end in mind. Identify two or three main points or ideas you want your audience to know. Then develop all the elements (talking points, handouts, visual aides, etc.) around these main points.
When you need some new ideas right away for a project or problem, convene a “thought exchange”. A “thought exchange” is a diverse group of people from different backgrounds and disciplines who, with the aid of a facilitator, can generate multiple ideas in a high energy setting.
Establish the practice of using the first 15 minutes of each work day to review the day’s agenda, and the last 15 minutes of the workday to review the day’s accomplishments and prepare for the next day. Once this becomes a habit, you will notice the value of this practice in helping to minimize time pressures and stress.
To expand your creativity, expand your experiences. Reach out to new or different people. Participate in a variety of civic, social, and leisure pursuits. Travel off the beaten path. Over time your creative juices will really flow.
Every leader is also a follower. Periodically evaluate your behavior as a follower to help improve your leadership skills.
Each time you communicate (face-to-face, via email, by telephone) you are communicating more than content. You are sending critical messages about who you are. What do your communications reveal about what you know and who you are?
