5 Ways to Stand Out in an Office Crowd
1. Consistency
In a room full of competent people, be the one who is consistent.
Be the one who does what he says he will do.
80% of the competent-looking people in a room will not follow through.
Want to stand-out? Then be consistent.
2. Develop initiative
Opportunities will not land on your desk. You will have to find them.
Initiative does not ask for permission if you could, if you are allowed, if it’s ok.
You just do.
In return, initiative develops talent, breeds hard work, and creates alliances.
3. Ask burning questions
Don’t pose a question to sound smart. People catch on to this quickly.
Don’t ask a question to play the Devil’s advocate (we both know you aren’t).
Dare to ask the questions that are burning inside you. Most of the time the ones that burn are the simple and “stupid” questions.
Don’t be afraid. Go on and ask.
4. Learn through context
Contrary to popular belief, information is not everything. People use information to make themselves relevant. They can also hide it to make themselves significant.
You don’t need to learn everything and you don’t need to be an expert in a particular area to add value and contribute to it.
Learn through context so you can apply it to what you need to do and hopefully ask burning questions.
5. Troubleshoot
You know when you call Helpdesk support for help because your computer has stopped working as expected.
The support then talks you through a series of questions, actions, observation and then they can diagnose the problem. This process is called troubleshooting.
When you encounter a problem, there is usually three ways to deal with it.
1. You get a patch to fix it.
Your system will need to learn a skill so that you can deal with the current changes in the environment.
2. You eliminate it.
Either you remove it, or you don’t expose yourself to it.
3. You live with it.
You work around with what you got and the environment you are in.
Learn to troubleshoot your way to improve your communication, relationships, and career prospects.
This entry is part of my ideas creation series blog. Taking your ideas from thoughts to reality.
