Just getting a job and working 40 hours a week is not career. Making a great Career demands 60 hours a week.
Key Mantra to success is “NOW IS THE RIGHT TIME!” Because the world has become so competitive, you will have to try hard to secure your share of success. Make a list of your priorities and plan your day.
Knowing your strength and weakness is one of the best secrets to career success. A Bright Career depends upon certain factors, they are
- Education
- Skills
- Vision
- Interest
- Values
- Goals
Career Success Secrets:
1. Create your future:
With your strong education base, you can make your goal of a great career and a smart success. You should have the strength to pursue your targets.
Learn from the past and design your future. Climbing to the top needs strength and courage, whether it is Mount Everest or your career.
2. Expertise your hobby:
When love and skill for your career comes together, then a masterpiece is developed. You feel the urge to display your passion at your best, your career foundation is then set. You should pick a career you don’t need escaping from.
Gradually, you will achieve mastery in your area. What I have experienced is that if you do the work you love and the work satisfies you, the success has already come.
3. Visualize your dreams:
Dreams do not work unless you visualize it in day time. If you can dream it, you can do it. Visualize yourself in your boss’s chair once you enter his room.
Observe his style of presentation in front of his sub ordinates. Look at his mannerisms. You will see that gradually you are getting inspired by the respect and politeness your boss is receiving from his sub ordinates and staff including you.
Your crave for the position will grow every time you see him or you enter his room. Your imagination will automatically set up a goal in your mind to achieve that place and your mind will then start functioning ways to reach that level.
4. Sell yourself:
Your first impression is your Resume. Make your Resume so impressive that your first step is firm and ready once you reach the place for interview. Then again, when you are called for interview, add some information other than your resume to show them your full value. Highlight the tasks which has produced more benefits to your bosses.
If possible, quantify it. Give them a compelling reason so that they want you in their team.
5. Discard your negativism:
Aim to convert your cants’ into your cans and see your dream converting itself into plans. Criticism is as important as compliments. Change your surroundings if you feel that your surroundings are not supportive.
Flock with people who you feel will lift you higher to your goals. If you don’t get opportunities, create one. If you fail in your initial steps, design a new one. There is no age limits for setting up goals and dreams. Keep aside inferiority complex.
6. Make small targets and achieve it:
Achieving your set targets gives you more confidence. It will work magic once you have gained it. It is not possible to become a CEO in one day.
You need patience and perseverance to work hard, harder and hardest every day of your life to touch the stars.
It may take years but you will be satisfied that you are in process of achieving it. The hard work you do will definitely show results.
7. Avoid Hitchhiking:
A well said proverb is very much applicable for gaining career prospects i.e. “a rolling stone gathers no mass”.
Continuous changes in the job location and organization will decrease the chances of promotion and increments. One should stick to what he has chosen for some time to see both the good and bad side of it.
Constant job changes mark a spot in your Resume and job profile. Interviewers become insecure for appointing you because they don’t see a long term stability in you.
Even if you are not satisfied with your job in your initial terms, stay for a while, there may be some thing better in store once you mingle with your new organization. Give people the confidence to believe in you.
8. Have a good leader:
A good leader will unlock your potential if you take active steps in the organization. A leader can only help you when he will know about your goals.
Discuss your dreams with him. Ask for his guidance and follow it. Show him your aspects. These practices will somewhere make a huge impact in your career.
9. Establish healthier relations with superiors:
Your well being on the job front is maintained when you establish cordial relations with superiors. Superiors are best guide to show you how to climb higher steps and reach the top management.
You will have to work for your success and work harder than your superiors to get recognized and become known.
10. Strive for progress, not perfection:
No one is perfect in this world. And practice doesn’t makes a man perfect; it only improves his way of working.
Superiors have a tendency to find faults. So, it is better to strive for progress and leave aside perfection. This is the standard mantra for steady success.
Perfection is expected and when it is displayed it does not create any further great impression. It is one of the factors and it is not the only factor for success. Be process oriented rather than outcome oriented.
11. Read books by great businessmen:
Cultivating reading habits and applying them in our daily professional lives is a good habit. Reading books about great personalities help in forming our personalities well. It gives us ideas to grow in our careers.
It displays the pros and cons of such life and guides us through their experiences and the hardship faced by them.
One of the books “rich dad poor dad” will help us in laying the foundation stone well for our bright future.
12. Make your will power strong:
We have seen people with great knowledge and experience in their lives but could not get very far in their career front.
Reason being, low will power. Where there is a will, there is a way. We have set examples of esteemed businessmen who have started from scratch and reached in the top five lists. If they can, why cant we??
Strong determination and concentration will definitely let us reach our goals and mark a line for others to follow as well.
13. Believe in yourself:
Believe in yourself and you are halfway done.
You should have faith in whatever you do. You should have faith in yourself first. You should have the courage to complete whatever task you have started.
Every one has the powers, but they lack confidence. Without a reasonable confidence in yourself you cannot become happy and successful in your life.
A mind filled with doubts about each task cannot focus on completion of the task. You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes, then you can steer yourself in any direction you choose.
14. Don’t be disheartened with failures:
Failures are unavoidable. But they can be minimized always. Failure acts as the bouncing effect which leads a man to grow higher in their success.
A successful man is the one who makes a building with the stones that others throw at him. The way to avoid mistakes is to make them and learn from them.
A successful man has passed through many unsuccessful years to reach that stage. Great success comes after great disappointments. So cheer up every time you meet failure.
15. Work hard and dedicated:
You should be willing to drench yourself in your work, beyond the capacity of an average man, and then you will be fit for the positions at the top. There must be labour before rewards.
A well said proverb explains it well. You sow hard work and determination then you reap joy and success. One who gives his best shall not regret it. It may so happen that right from the start you are asked to deal with the most difficult.
You should find ways to overcome it. Get best results. Show your capabilities. Then you shall be recognized.
16. Positive thinking at work place:
Positive thinking is a mental exercise which shows constructive results. When our thinking is positive, our attitude is positive, we can transfer a feeling of success to our colleagues.
Our positive energy will act like magnets and people will be willing to help us. It takes as much pain to think about negative or think about positive.
Concentrate on the positive and expect best results. “I can, I will, I am able to and I am ready” are the phrases which should be said and implemented in starting a new task, to get it done in a complete and right manner.
17. Concentrate on solutions instead of problems:
Some team members have a natural tendency to point fingers when things are not right. They tend to complain and shift from their responsibilities instead of thinking of a right solution to solve it.
In this situation, stop dwelling in these kind of unproductive activities. Instead, live up to the challenge of the problem and do it yourself to seek a solution.
18. Time management at work:
Time is the essence of career success. Prepare to-do lists and allocate timings to complete. Stay focused and complete the job in time.
In the mean time, don’t get distracted with other areas. Take one task at a time and complete it. Don’t try to do n number of jobs at one go.
In the end, you will land up completing not even a single work. Completing the work on time shows punctuality and discipline in your work habits.
Superiors get impressed when they see discipline in your work. They get used to you and cannot afford to loose you. At this point of time, you can demand your success and you will get it.
19. Stay focused:
You may have lots of work. You may have jotted them in to do list and allocated time but still you cannot complete them in that time.
The main reason behind this is” lack of focus”. You may get distracted by your personal things like your e mails your SMSs, web surfing etc.
The temptation of social sites is unavoidable at times. So, how do you expect to stay focused with all those temptations?
One way is to allocate a time of the day to indulge in these activities also. And then focus on your work. You will see that your quality improves.
20. Take breaks:
I personally take 10 minutes break for every two hours I work. In this break, I stretch a little and refresh my mind hence allowing myself to focus better.
This is the reasons why weekends are made. It is true that “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. It is also advisable to take breaks from your professional lives to return and start fresh.
21. Start Early:
Getting up early for the day makes you steady and punctual through out the day. It helps to clear out a lot of things before everyone starts to come in.
You can check your emails, read newspapers and be ready with your job.
Things which you find hard to give up shall be completed in the first hour itself and this will make you focused on the job. Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try.
22. Improve your productivity:
Attack on those things which you don’t like to do. Call clients which are tough at handling.
Complete those things that keeps you bugging and holds you back even before you realize it. Once you start, you will feel relieved.
You will realize that you had too many activities which was not allowing you to focus on these small easy tasks. It is these small activities which were creating mud on your positivity.
23. Keep doing:
Patience and perseverance are two keys to success. Life has no shortcuts. Knowing is not enough, you must apply. And willing to do is not enough, you must do.
If you want a career boost, you will have to keep on moving inspite of hurdles and not think of giving up. If you want unexpectable success in life, you should be ready to do things you have never done before.
But there is hope and success once you have done it. Become a workaholic until you sit in that position. Don’t stop until you are proud of yourself.
24. Never reveal everything you know:
Keep some secrets to yourself to create your importance. Don’t make noise of your knowledge.
Make yourself recognizing every time you are given a difficult task.
25. Effective communication skills:
Great communication will lead to personal and career success. People understand what you show, they don’t understand what you know.
In today’s world, showing well implies knowing well. Your clear and effective communication skills impress your surroundings and people will want to talk to you. It establishes human connections.
Develop your oral and verbal communication skills and create a base for career success. Think twice before you speak, because your words will influence the minds of others.
26. Have a burning desire to succeed:
Your desire to achieve heights in your career should be greater than your fear of failure. Even if you fail over and over again in your life, that burning desire should act as a driving force to let you start again until you reach your goal.
27. Concentrate on your job rather than compensation:
It is more essential to show that you are interested in the roles and responsibilities of the organization rather than the brand and salary packages.
Show that you are interested in their association because of work culture and not because of money. You should be concerned about the business approach rather than secondary factors.
28. Determine why you want that post for which you are interviewed:
Don’t waste time of the interviewer with your academic life. Discuss more points as to why this position appeals to you.
What benefits can you provide to the company, once the job is assigned to you. Back your statements with facts.
29. Client relations:
In the professional world, products cannot hold clients as one product is manufactured by 100 companies. What keeps the clients intact is the type of services offered.
You should develop extensive knowledge in this area. When two firms have same products, clients decide on the firms with better service quality.
30. Eye catching personality:
There is a tradition of wearing standard formal suit and tie attire in business meetings and gatherings.
Similarly, for interview purposes, formal shirt and trousers are preferred. Apart from occasions, it is necessary to present yourself in a decent manner in office everyday.
Your dressing sense will create a picture of what kind of a person you are. If your clothes are well pressed and hairs neatly kept and shoes polished, it is revealed that you are an organized person.
Formal dressing sense also helps in building up confidence and smoothening personality.
31. Don’t make yourself too much at home:
Socializing is fine but not during office hours. You can afford some few minutes during lunch and tea breaks but not while working. This creates a healthy atmosphere at the time of working and maintains your focus as well.
Too much gossiping and chit chatting disturbs others as well. Don’t think that your boss doesn’t know what you are doing behind him.
And moreover, you should not create an ambience where others get disturbed or distract themselves from work.
32. Make your work place neat and clean:
These type of small factors create a good impression in front of your boss, colleagues and sub ordinates. It spells out your love and passion towards your job.
Your loyalty towards organization. Your mind will start working more when your things are neatly kept.
When you leave for the day, you place should be completely cleared off papers and pens.
33. Limit personal online usage:
Personal works during office hours is the major distracting component. There are surprise checks time to time which may reveal that you are using the internet more for personal purposes. This creates a bad impression in front of your seniors.
People think that you are just passing time. If there is anything urgent that you need to know, just look for it and clear your history so that you are safe sided on a dog watch day.
34. Deal with your personal problems privately:
Don’t discuss your personal lives with the colleagues. They may spread a word and your secrets may leak out.
Or it may so happen that they will form an impression about your nature and character by the stories you keep on telling about your families or friends.
35. Don’t talk politics:
One should never discuss politics, religion or money in your office. If these topics come your way, just stay neutral or give a casual turn and switch over too sports or business. Sports is a much safer discussion topic than politics.
36. Protect the confidentiality:
Every organization has some confidential matters which you should not discuss publicly. Being a part of the organization, you should have the ability to assess the necessity of the information you may see\read unknowingly.
Don’t talk too much about your company to an outsider unless you are in the marketing field. Keep aside the financial information, pending mergers, new locations etc.
37. Don’t loose your cool under pressure:
Pressure is the right time to judge an employee. Working in pressure shall display the behavior of an employee. And moreover, your promotion depends upon how you handled these kinds of situations.
Speaking calmly and coolly to others helps in attaining problem solving approach to the situation. At times of emergency, mistakes may have been made or things might have been gone wrong.
So now is the time to correct the past rather than regretting and shouting all over the office staff.
38. Trust but verify:
Trust your subordinates but simultaneously verify their contents to give them a sense of security.
Consider them as a team and give them equal responsibilities so that they feel that you have leadership qualities as well.
39. Prepare your message before meeting an official:
Do your homework. Study the topic in advance before going to the official. Your previous knowledge will make you speak in a confident manner.
This confidence will impress him and your work may be done at the earliest. This helps in developing relations also. They will see that you have come prepared.
40. Always take notes:
In a meeting; the speaker speaks well only when he sees that the audience is getting interest.
Even if the topic is a bit familiar to you, start taking notes, because it is not possible to remember everything in mind.
41. Start and stay humble:
Kindness and politeness are two essential qualities all human beings are lacking nowadays. Egoism out of their posts has become so wide that they consider their sub ordinates as mere clerks.
It is the sign of a successful gentleman/lady to treat all equally. This shows you have team spirit and you value criticism also.
Your flexible nature will be of great help in the forthcoming days of your bright future.
42. Stay updated in current business trends and affairs:
Regular updating is a must for people who want to be recognized in the crowd. Nowadays, acts are getting revised frequently and it is not possible to sit one day and memories all.
You should subscribe to different sites which keep on updating case studies, G.O.’s, case laws and other important articles. Read them on a daily basis.
43. Summarize for the day:
At the time of leaving office, give a summary for the day to your boss about the whole day’s work. This is one of the techniques of marketing yourself inside the firm. Always inform when you are leaving the office.
44. Get a passport:
Even if you are not planning to go abroad, apply for a passport. A passport is a valid ID proof and people do get preferences over others who are possessing passport.
45. Practice your daily work:
Never be over confident of anything. It’s good to have control over things but rechecking and revising the work is a good habit.
It makes sure that nothing is left out or everything is in order.
Lastly, with a famous quote by Robert Kiyosaki, embarks the cumulative effect of career success-“The size of your success is measured by the strength of your desire; the size of your dreams and the way you handle your disappointments along the way.”
