12 Simple Ways to Succeed
for Employees, Intrapreneurs and Entrepreneurs
At the bottom of the page, you can download and print this article and post this in your workspace or share with your colleagues and trainees.
By: Sophia GMTA
While there are many factors that contribute to a professional or a leader’s success, some people tend to focus on the big things and forget the easy low hanging fruit that you can achieve no matter what your level or role is and that will enhance your professional profile/brand.
Whether you are an employee, or an employee that is establishing themselves as an intrapreneur, or you are an entrepreneur, each item is critical to having a solid foundation for a respected personal brand and sustainable career.
Each item on this list is equally important and they are not in order of priority.
Use emails/chats efficiently.
Take a moment and review your message to make sure it makes sense.
Talk in-person or over the phone to save time on back and forth and ensure clear communication.
Use the same email chain: respond within the same email conversation when you are working on an ongoing matter because it makes it easier for everyone on the team to stay organized.
Be conservative with time estimates.
It is better to better to navigate/deal with any displeasure around time than displeasure around lateness and rushed quality.
Check your work.
Own your mistakes & continue to grow.
Communicate with respect. Be direct/frank but not rude.
Be willing to say I don’t know. Then learn from someone/resource.
Actively continue to learn.
Curate your own business intelligence news updates where you can receive weekly updates on new matters related to your industry, career interests, skills and future career pursuits.
Observe recurring issues and do something about it. And Master your recurring tasks.
Use/Cultivate common sense.
Ignore fear and Speak up.
Take care of yourself. Find what balance is for you and live it.
The following is an explanation for each item. And at the bottom of the page, you can download and print this article and post this in your workspace or share with your colleagues and trainees.
1. use EMAILS and CHATS efficiently:
Take a moment and review your message to make sure it makes sense: many get caught up in the energy of rushing and it leads to unecessary back and forth or can lead to serious miscommunication. This can easily be saved by taking a breath before you press send and review your message once over.
Talk in-person or over the phone to save time on back and forth and ensure clear communication: use a phone call (or talk in-person) to adequately address an issue/topic. Then use email to summarize the conversation. It is still important to document the conversation because with all organizations, paper trails are vital for audit purposes and for business continuity purposes. And, capturing the discussion through email makes it easy for reference purposes and you don’t need to rely on memory or one person.
Use the same email chain: respond within the same email conversation when you are working on an ongoing matter because it makes it easier for everyone on the team to stay organized and go to one email chain to search and look for notes or updates instead of searching their email inbox for multiple emails. It particularly makes life easier for whoever is managing the project.
2. Be conservative with time estimates:
Often people over promise even though they know they have too much on their plate or a personal obligation that they cannot miss. It is best to be conservative and honest about what you can actually do. For those who are junior, they may be afraid of disappointing their superiors but it is better to be honest than that supervisor relying on you to deliver on time and then you are late and their schedule and other projects are negatively impacted. Better to deal with any displeasure around time than displeasure around lateness and rushed quality.
3. Check your work:
A really simple and easy win is to check your work and make sure there are not mistakes (spelling, grammar, formatting, etc.). And particularly if you work with data analysis or in other technical areas, it is important to have a colleague check your work.
4. Own your mistakes and continue to grow:
Sometimes people are so afraid of making a mistake that it keeps them playing small and they do not try or do stretch assignments that will allow them to grow. Being afraid to make a mistake will only keep you stagnant. Rather be willing or know that you will make mistakes and make sure you have resources to help you (mentor, colleagues, work buddy, etc.) who can check your work before it goes to the recipient.
And when you make a mistake, learn from it and resolve it and move on. Sometimes people experience a form of mental or emotional paralysis and they are not able to move on. This does not help anyone. Learning from your mistake makes you better and will allow you to either: (1) make sure someone else does not make the same mistake or (2) help someone recover from that mistake.
If you're too afraid to make mistakes and focused on some inappropriate definition of perfection then you will likely experience burnout, stress, or unecessary challenges.
5. Communicate with respect & Be Direct (not rude):
An easy win is talking to everyone with respect.
A simple win that maybe hard for some people is to be direct and honest. It is better to be direct and frank so communication is clear and to minimize/eliminate misunderstandings.
Now some people confuse being direct/frank/honest with being rude. There is a difference. And if you do not know the difference then you can learn by observing someone who is great at being kind and direct and clear and confident when they communicate and then practice so that you can develop your own voice and style.
6. Be willing to say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I am not familiar’. Then go learn from someone/resource:
Some people think this is taboo or it makes you look stupid. It is not true. One thing about being successful is at some point you cannot let other people’s opinions/judgments stand in the way of you growing.
By being able to say ‘I don’t know can you tell me’ or ‘I am not familiar, I will research it further so we can have an educated conversation’ and then proceed to educate yourself through someone or a resource on the topic then this opens the door for an honest intellectual conversation that can turn into a truly fruitful discussion.
7. Be willing to learn and actively continue to learn and enhance your skills.
The world continues to evolve and make new discoveries that impacts every aspect of society. So continue to learn and evolve your skillset and knowledge. Why? It will keep you up to date on what are the latest developments in your industry/market/career, it may reveal new and better ways to do your work, it may reveal new resources or people that you can collaborate with, it may bring a new spark to your work, it can allow you to develop into an expert in your field, etc.
8. Curate your own business intelligence news updates specific to your industry, career, interests and skills.
Subscribe to a few news organizations or thought leaders in your industry to stay up to date on information.
Make the list specific to your current responsibilities and to your future aspirations and your unique skills. This will allow you to continue to stay up to date on updates that could impact your work or clients and allows you to be proactive.
9. Resolve recurring issues. Master your recurring tasks.
Observe what are common issues/challenges and figure out a way to do something about. It does not serve you to stay a victim to what/who is not working for you. Brainstorm with a colleague or mentor on solutions.
If you have recurring tasks (that do fall within your scope of duties) and you do not like it or you struggle with it, then take time to see how to make the task enjoyable or how to do it more efficiently so it does not take up so much of your time. Then you will no longer have to deal with same pain points every day/week/month. Face it and conquer it once and for all.
10. Use/Cultivate common sense.
Whatever you are working on, take a moment and put yourself in the shoes of the recipient of your work. Think about what you would like if you were them or what you have noticed they would like and incorporate it.
With presentations and correspondences, take the appropriate time to present information in an easy manner for the receiver to read or review.
In this day and age there is such a thing as a bad question. Consider your audience and consider the moment. Also, take time for simple matters to seek the answer on your own as best as possible so then you can have an informed conversation or if you have follow-up questions at least they will be educated questions. This strengthens your own problem-solving skills and makes your better.
Lastly, know when to ask for help.
11. Ignore fear and Speak up.
Do not let fear keep you from speaking up.
If you keep emailing someone and they are not responsive, then go find them and discuss it. This does not need to be aggressive or a conflict, just a simple conversation in-person to talk about in the moment or set up time to talk about in-person.
If you are shy then it is best that you work on it. It is not noble or humble to be shy because all that does is deprive you, your community, your organization and the world of your unique perspective and skills and gifts.
12. Take care of yourself. Find what balance is for you and live it.
It is important to have a healthy work life balance but not based on a magazine’s standards. What balance looks like for you is going to depend on you, your loved ones, your interests, your career, your health. And what looks like balance may need to change over time as different aspects of your life change, so this is something that you will always need to recalibrate.
Nobody wins if your health declines or you are prone to burnout.
Here is an example for you to reflect on: I had a project where one of the consultants we were working with passed away over the weekend. We were all shocked by the news and felt for her family and community, but the truth is after a few days, her company found a replacement and her role in the project continued without her. Not that her death was due to the project, but the point is that the work will continue without you. Is this an extreme example....yes.....but nonetheless true. So, it is important to figure out how to have a healthy balance, so you are truly living a full healthy life.
A healthy balance makes you a better employee/intrapreneur/employee.
People like to make the excuse that its complicated or not easy, but really and truly it probably is simple just hard for you to act on because of your beliefs, circumstances, etc. but regardless it does not mean something doesn’t need to change. So find small steps to work towards this and start building a well rounded life.
Only you can define what a well rounded life is for you. For one person that may be a life predominantly of work but they are genuinely and truly at peace and happy, while someone else it is 50-50 work and family time, or 50-50 work and hobbies, etc. It all depends on you and what your definition of happiness is.
Comment below and let us know what you would add to this list.