Stage 4 Tips

Become a Stellar Performer

You can improve your job performance—and become a star!

Why? Because stars make more money, tend to be more satisfied, and have more fun.

So just how do you become a stellar performer?

Think in terms of small steps. Nothing is truer of the process. You eat the elephant one bite at a time; if you're smart, one small bite at a time.

Whether you're a financial planner, a busboy in a restaurant with aspirations to be a waiter, a teacher, a salesperson, or a mid-line manager, don't think it's going to happen overnight.

That's simply a great setup for failure, because you're not going to achieve what you want to as quickly as you want to, and you're going to end up frustrated and discouraged.

Take small steps, and you'll be much better off in the long run.

You must continue to do research on a regular basis. Twenty to 30 minutes a day is usually sufficient.

Take the time to read a relevant periodical, browse or search the Internet for information pertaining to your job, and talk to others in your field. There's some great information out there about what's going on in the marketplace. Keep up with the latest books on your industry.

The main thing is to do daily research on your industry. You'll be surprised how it's going to help you in the future. And the reason you'll be surprised is that most people don't do it.

You may well turn out to be the only kid on your career block who knows what's going on in your area of expertise.

Ask management in your company what you can do to make yourself more valuable.

Go to them proactively and say, "I'd like to be more valuable to the company. How do I go about doing it?"

This accomplishes a couple of things. It lets management know that you're serious about your career, and it earns you some gratitude that will come in handy at some future time.

Ask for assignments nobody else wants. There are always those unglamorous tasks that no one wants to do. Maybe they take too much time, they're hard to do, they're thankless, whatever the reason.

Ask if they need some help with quarterly reports, or the inventory things that people find time-consuming and boring. I'll guarantee you, you'll get to help. And it is a surefire way to make yourself into a star performer.

Present management with a plan to improve problem areas at work. We all know what the problems are. After all, we all like to bitch and complain about them.

But how many of us are willing to do anything about them? Well, the star performers come up with ideas or plans to improve those problem areas.

I'm not talking about a fifty-page document to be published in a journal. A one- or two-page memo saying, "Hey, I think we have a problem here and this is what I think we can do about it."

Maybe it's a plan to reduce accounts receivable, or just some way to ensure that incoming phone calls don't get lost between the cracks.

Offer to assist fellow employees on their projects after hours. Obviously you have to use work time for your own work and projects.

Just be careful you don't get too distracted; you can spread yourself too thin. But you can offer your assistance selectively.

Maybe someone's been out sick a couple of days, or just bogged down. Maybe someone in customer service has been asked for a bunch of reports and doesn't have time to do anything else.

Just go to that person and say, "I know you're buried in stuff this week and I've got a couple of hours after work on Thursday. Okay if I give you a hand?"

That person will never forget you. Never. Guaranteed. And he or she will tell at least a half dozen people about it.

Got a question for Gordon? Ask it here.

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