If you want to lift the trajectory of your career or speed up your progress at work, you’ve got to take care of the basics.
Here are some concepts that you need to always keep in mind if you’ve got your eye on a corner office:
Stay curious.
Walt Disney once said, “Curiosity keeps leading down new paths.” If you want to keep moving forward, you have to stay curious. You have to stay interested. Most great leaders and entrepreneurs are critical thinkers. They relentlessly question and wonder about the things around them––why things work the way they do or how to make things work effectively. Alan R. Mulally, an engineer who eventually became Ford Motor Company’s chief executive officer, was quoted as saying: “I’ve always wanted to learn everything, to understand what they did, why they did what they did, what worked for them, what didn’t work.” If you want to be on top of your game, be inquisitive. Ask questions.
Read.
You might not be the smartest person in the room, but you can get ahead by being the best learner through reading. Nobody wants to follow someone they won’t be able to learn from. An effective leader is someone knowledgeable—and the best way to acquire new knowledge is to grab a book and read. Books open up new worlds, introduce inspiring ideas, and stir up the imagination. Be good to yourself, read!
Take ownership of mistakes.
Apart from presiding over the end of World War II, Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, is also known for a sign on his desk at the White House that says: “The buck stops here.” Passing the buck means giving the responsibility to someone else. But as president of the most powerful nation in the world, Truman told all and sundry that the buck stops with him. Great CEOs know that they are responsible for their organization, during both good times and bad. Great CEOs are those who remain strong and steadfast in times of adversity. They don’t make any excuses for failure; they own up to them. They are the sort of people who fall down, pick themselves up, and keep fighting the next day.
Be consistent.
In martial arts, the paragon of perfection is achieved by repeating a set of moves over and over again. To attain the desired results, one must be consistent in his training routine, devoting much time and effort to perfect his form. This must be applied to the workplace, too. Legendary author Stephen King believes in the power of consistency. He writes every day, striving for 1,000 words, weekends and holidays included. Practice does make perfect!
Stay focused.
Keep your eye on the prize. Google’s Eric Schmidt keeps things focused on what is important to run a well-oiled company. He often tells his employees: “This is what we do. Is what we are doing consistent with that, and can it change the world?” This serves as a check and balance of sorts, so that everything is clear. Staying focused also means blocking out distractions. If it’s unnecessary and irrelevant, then it’s bound to reduce productivity. The fastest way to the top is to waste no time getting there!