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'In a Nutshell' - new ideas to keep you aware and informed
Work Like You're Showing Off - by Joe Calloway
If you can get beyond the title, this is a practical and useful book with the tag line, 'The joy, jazz and kick of being better tomorrow than you were today!'. The way Calloway defines the provocative term 'showing off' is not about being arrogant, vain or obnoxious. Rather, it's about bringing the best you have to any situation - about high performance. And often the best 'show-offs' in this sense, as Calloway points out, are the quiet ones; those who consistently just get on with it and make things happen without fuss, even when under pressure.
Ensure people get what they want
Calloway's 'show-offs' understand that the best way to succeed themselves is to make sure that others also genuinely feel good about what happens. It's about staying focused on creating positive results that benefit everybody who has a stake in the situation. Calloway argues that this sort of high performance doesn't just happen. 'Showing off' is a mindset that can be adopted. It's a practical decision that anybody can make and commit to.
This is a choice you can make
Calloway reminds us that the attributes most commonly valued at work are the ability to perform consistently, deliver results and show up well under pressure. These behaviours, he suggests, are a direct result of how the individual thinks and we can all consciously choose how we want to approach each situation, challenge and opportunity. Identifying some simple criteria, he offers us a series of practical steps to 'showing off' high performance, such as:
1. Grand Stupidity and Absurd Bravery!
Top performers try things without knowing for sure whether they'll work or not. They are innovators. That means going first (with courage not recklessness!) and finding out. To do this, innovators also have to be willing to let go of what worked in the past in order to find out what will work in the future.
2. Action Rules and Speed Wins
Business today happens fast. People are only interested in what happens next. If you make the customer wait, you lose. Top performing individuals and organisations value and demonstrate action and speed. Mistakes can be corrected, but standing still in a fast moving market can be fatal. So remember, one deadly enemy of performance is 'death by meetings'!
3. Relentless Improvement
Calloway reminds us that Tiger Woods has a coach. Even the best golfer in the world wants to be a better golfer! Top performers keep on taking determined steps to becoming better at what they do. This entails not just venturing 'outside the box' but also attending to improving the basics 'inside the box'.
4. Whatever Happens is Normal
Nobody can ever know for sure what's going to happen next. High performers are professionals - well prepared, fully aware and having researched every contingency - yet they are also ready to change gear and work with the unexpected. The difference between the person who calmly and elegantly handles the unexpected and the one who goes ballistic is that the former accepts the reality that the unexpected often happens and deals with it as 'normal'. The first step in performing well when 'stuff happens' is to learn to expect change, however unwelcome, and when it happens treat it as normal and react accordingly.
“Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead
where there is no path and leave a trail.”
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