Unlocking Success: Embracing a New Mindset of Working from “How to be The Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without” Book — Part 2

Hello everyone, here’s the next part of my review on the book titled “How to be The Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without”. If you haven’t read the first part of the review, you can check it out in this link.

High-Value Employee Illustration (generated by DALL-E)

Step 10: Broaden Your Circle of Influence

The book perfectly quotes that the most powerful person is the one who influences the most. This aligns with what most successful people do. At first, we may think that the more successful people were the least needed help people with. But the truth is, the otherwise. The more successful people, the more they need the help from others. Hence, it’s important to maintain healthy relationships in a professional manner. We all need help from others, no matter how successful we are. In order to achieve big things, you also need cooperation from others, which is why you should broaden your circle of influence. To maintain healthy professional relationships at work, here are some simple tips that work effectively:

• Don’t ruin others’ parade. Never ruin others’ happiness. Don’t be a party pooper.
• Learn to let others have a spotlight when it’s their turn. NEVER try to steal others spotlight. Imagine you’re having your birthday party but your sister announced her engagement.
• Make whatever is important to the other person important to you. Appreciate those who have achieved great things in their work. Congratulate those who are celebrating their birthday, the birth of their first child, their marriage, etc., as these are precious moments to them. Regardless of your current life stage, you must show interest in what’s important to others if you wish to build human relationships of any kind.

Step 11: Adopt the Work Ethic Your Grandfather Had

In this book, here are four powerful messages from earlier generations that should be passed on for better work ethics:

• Differentiate between Workaholism vs Hard Work. Workaholism is the term where you constantly work for no reason and it could damage your life outside work: your family, relationship, etc. Meanwhile, working hard is different when work should not be the purpose of your life; it should only be a means to an end.
• Hard work is believed to keep us young since it always utilizes your mind and critical thinking to the fullest and it doesn’t decrease the quality of your life.
• Don’t let others pull you down. There will be people in your life who will discourage you from working harder. Their real concern may be that they look lazy if you work too hard.
• Remove your self-imposed limits. We are growing when we push our limits. You’re only limited by your own mind. You’re limitless.

Step 12: Be Professional at Whatever You Do.

A good quote from the book said:

“I would take one employee with heart and a positive attitude over ten faster or smarter mediocre people who were just collecting paychecks.”

There are several terms that could describe your professionalism at work.

• Earn a reputation for always doing your job accurately. You don’t need to always be outstanding, but you can be trusted by consistently doing your job well.
• Professionalism means doing your best even if you don’t like it. Don’t let any personal excuses corrupt your work.
• Leave your home life at home. Separate your life at work from your personal life. Don’t let your personal problems influence how you do at work and result in bad performance.
• Respect other people’s values even if you don’t agree with them. Go back to the 2nd way in this book on aligning your values with your employer’s.
• Learn how to disagree without being insubordinate. Being able to form an opinion is a sign of being an adult, but knowing when to keep them to yourself is a sign of professionalism.
• Dress for the job you want, not the job you have. Wear your best suit for everything you attend to. It automatically shows how enthusiastic you are about the job, expressed through your outfit.
• Surround yourself with highly valued employees. Avoid unhealthy cliques. Your environment defines who you are.

Step 13: Check your Ego at the Door, Incredible Power of Gratitude

The title of the chapter is actually just “Check Your Ego at the Door.” But when I read this chapter, the main focus was actually on gratitude for your work. Gratitude is the best thing you can do in your life, not just at work. People will appreciate what they have when things get tough. Otherwise, it is easy to take things for granted when life is as good as it is today. I would like to separate gratitude into three subjects:

• For your coworkers: Showing gratitude for someone else’s kindness or generosity is proper etiquette. It’s an expression of love that you are truly thankful for them, and you can make them feel loved and appreciated too.
• For yourself: Showing gratitude for everything you’ve got is known as being grateful. Just like being grateful for this beautiful day, for a healthy body, for good work, is a sign that you love your job. Most people will value their job starting with their gratefulness at first.
• For those who complain they aren’t paid enough and deserve more:
  You won’t be grateful for what you get in the future if you’re not grateful for what you have now.

“If you don’t find happiness here, then a house on the beach will not bring you happiness either.”

Step 14: Take Charge on Your Own Destiny

Always remember that you have control over every action and reaction you make to every event that happens in your life. Like the concept of stoicism, there are things that you can control and things that you cannot control. Don’t let any uncontrollable events make you a reactive person and lead to wrong decision-making, as it can be influenced. In your career, your career ladder is not rigidly defined like in a corporate company. You take charge of your own destiny, including your career path, which is not mapped by the company. To make your career path more real, here are two suggestions from the book:

• Make your intentions known. Just like a motorist uses signals for safe driving when turning on the street. So it is with your career path. If you have any aspirations for your career, try to communicate them as early as possible so your manager can consider your aspirations and help you define the path, as your intentions are known.
• Your raise will become effective when you become more effective.
  The worst thing an employee can do is ask for a raise. Raises aren’t handouts; they are earned. Instead of asking for a raise, it’s better to ask, “What do I need to do to earn a raise?” In a promotion context, it could be, “What should I do to get a promotion?”
• Don’t let any circumstance influence your actions. You have control over your circumstances instead of letting your circumstances control you.

Step 15: Don’t Confuse Education with Knowledge

This chapter is crucial for those who want to continue studying for a master’s degree or beyond. You’ve probably heard that “Your degree could accelerate your career progress in the industry.” This is probably true, as some companies require specific master’s degrees or higher. But this book fills the gap in that sentence. Your degree will matter if it increases your value and is beneficial to the employer who hires you. Don’t blindly pursue a degree without considering what’s in it for you. Sometimes, a college degree doesn’t enhance people’s useful job skills if it isn’t chosen correctly.

One of the most common pitfalls in the industry is that many people decide to continue their studies just to escape from their jobs. This is not a good reason to pursue further education. You are simply running away from reality. In the end, your skills and attitudes are what really matter to a company.

And then comes the question, does academic record matter? The answer is yes, but actually, not really. I found out surprisingly that a few of my friends turned out to be successful in life even with average or not-so-good grades back in college. What I found interesting is that they each have value, and that’s what really matters for companies. However, academic record was more significant early in their career. If you have job experience, it will be more highlighted than just your academic record.

“Regardless of Education, it requires dedication and persistence to climb the Corporate ladder.”

Step 16: Avoid Learning Helplessness

What does helplessness meaning? This book described in three simple characteristics:

• Seeing yourself as a victim (playing victim)
• Feeling sorry for yourself
• Believing you’re powerless

The book also highlights several situations where you might fall into the pitfall of helplessness and how to take the right action.

• Life is unfair, so get over it. Life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it.
• Lose your fear of failure. We can’t control failure, but we can control how we view it. Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure. In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.
• Avoid the Little Man Syndrome. This can be illustrated as a small fish in a big deep blue sea where they don’t stand a chance. This syndrome should be avoided. In the end, each of you is worthy and stands a chance.
• What happens if your company doesn’t recognize your value? Always know what you’re worth in the free market
• Opportunities only knock once. Seize the opportunity when it presents itself and never complain that there are no opportunities. You should take a step for the opportunity. It gives you the power over your destiny.

Step 17: Become a Problem

There are five types of people when it comes to creating problems:

• Those who create problems and ignore them.
• Those who create problems and expect someone else to solve them
• Those who solve their own problems
• Those who solve their own problems and also help others solve theirs
• Those who solve their own problems, help others solve theirs, and also prevent problems.

Highly valued employees lie in the 5th stage, where they are the most effective at solving problems. Here is a new mindset about problem-solving that should be nurtured in everyone:

• Business is all about solving problems. Every new problem that presents itself creates an opportunity for you to become a highly valued employee.
• Highly valued employees often create MORE problems since they usually takes more initiative, accomplish more, and fail more.
• The number of problems you create isn’t what counts most; IT’S THE NUMBER OF SOLUTIONS YOU FIND.
• You don’t have to solve huge problems to make a difference. Every tiny problem you solve still makes you that much more valuable to your employer.
• Sometimes, problem solving skills can be more useful than technical knowledge.

Step 18: Avoid the Four Career Killers

Last but not least, this is the last chapter that consists of four career killers that should be avoided by highly valued employees:

• Confusing Activity with Productivity. People often make the mistake of going through several activities without focusing on what should be accomplished. You must actually be accomplishing a task while at work or you’re not actually working.
• Giving Ultimatums. Threatening your company, such as quitting if they don’t give a raise, is a big mistake. It will reduce your value and integrity as you are asking for something that shouldn’t be asked. Highly valued employees have integrity and know better than to create feelings of hostility with anyone.
• Breaking the Chain of Command. You must be a good soldier and follow orders even when you don’t agree with them. They are your employers. Highly valued employees understand that the chain of command shouldn’t be broken casually.
• Failing to have a sense of duty. This is the most basic thing you need to put in your mind as a worker: duty. If you fail to fulfill your duty, your employer won’t hire you anymore. Duty means you’re obligated to do something. Workers are obligated to serve their companies, and companies are obligated to serve their customers. Hence, you are also obligated to serve companies’ customers too, and your duty sure gives great impact on such a big scale even if you don’t recognize it.

🚀 Closing Statement

I hope this review will give you a new mindset about work, as the title suggests. This book is truly revolutionary and should be read by every employee worldwide. If you’re interested in reading the details of the book, I recommend not reading it in one sitting, but dividing it into milestones and trying to practice the concepts as soon as possible. It would be beneficial to read one chapter per day, fully understand it, and apply it practically in your work environment. Here’s to greater success and all the best to you all! Thanks for reading!

Acknowledgement

• Thank you to GDP Labs for providing me with the resources for this book, recommending such a good and inspiring read, and giving me space to keep learning and growing.
• Thank you to Azhar, my colleague both at ITB and GDP Labs, who encouraged me to publish my personal notes in a Medium article and reminded me about impacting a wider audience.

REFERENCES

Shepard, G. (2006). How to Be the Employee Your Company Can’t Live Without: 18 Ways to Become Indispensable (1st ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.