Pay-off: Learn 10 high-return ways to invest in yourself
Investment: 5 mins (2.5 min if you’d learned to speed read)
Today more than ever, if you’re not moving forwards, you’re almost certainly moving backwards.
It pays to decide right now if that’s ok to you or not. It might be. But if it isn’t, then this post should help you not only move forwards, but shift gears so you can move forwards faster and more efficiently.
To shift gears you must become someone else
To move forwards in your career (or any aspect of your life) you need to consider not just where you’re at and where you want to be, but who you are and who you need to be.
Now, if you’re doing everything ‘right’, consistently, then you’ll probably get to where you want to be. (Although be prepared for inevitable set backs!)
But if you need to make changes, and most of us do, then consider this…
The person who makes it to where you want to be is different to you right now. They’re in a different gear.
They think differently.
They decide differently.
They act differently.
They feel differently.
They behave differently.
It all starts and ends with a shift in thinking, and this has a knock on effect to your behaviours. To think differently you need to challenge your current thinking. You must think critically. You need to disagree with yourself in some areas. Otherwise you’ll just defend your current thinking, and consequently preserve your current situation.
To shift your mindset you must first become aware of it
Time to stop thinking about being right, and instead bend your thinking back on to itself – think about how you think, and observe what your thinking gets you to do and experience along the way.
Then compare that to what you actually want to be doing and experiencing. Want less headaches than you’re getting? Somehow, your thinking must change. Want more rewards? Think differently. Shake things up.
What path is your current quality of thinking carving out for you? Do you need to think more usefully?
I’ve said before that your thinking is similar to the lines of code in a computer program. Change a few lines, then run the program, and the output will be different.
One of the best ways to change a few lines in your programming is to learn more – learn new ‘lines of code’, and think more about what you learn, then try new things. Constantly changing your perspective shifts your thinking.
Useful thinking
You must also learn to think in a more useful manner. Useful thinking is the fastest way towards your goals. Not positive thinking, useful thinking.
Positive thinking isn’t always useful – it can root you to your current spot. It can keep you in the same gear. Some positive thinkers spend their time unwittingly moving backwards whilst repeating to themselves that ‘everything is fine and will all turn out ok.’ Positive, yes. Useful, no.
Think differently, repeatedly, and your decisions, actions, feelings and behaviours, results and rewards all shift.
But the key word there is ‘repeatedly’. Once is rarely enough. You need to shift your mindset gradually and develop new useful behaviours that stick, and take you to where you want to be.
What mindsets and behaviours must you develop?
So, the question is, who do you need to become? What behaviours do you need to develop to get to where you want to be?
And what’s your plan of attack for developing these both on and off the job? (Why not build ‘muscle’ off the job through other strategically chosen activities and by approaching situations in your personal life differently?)
Your list of behaviours will be unique to you and what you’re trying to achieve. However, for what it’s worth, I’ve built a list of the top 10 mindsets and behaviours that I think will take people the furthest in almost any field.
Note, I’ve tried to produce something a bit different to the usual tired list of “teamwork, communication, problem solving, innovation” etc. I hope it breathes a little more life into things…
Why not ask yourself where you’re at on a 1-10 scale for each, and where you need to be, and then determine a plan of attack to improve them?
10 new mindsets and behaviours worth developing fast
No matter what you do, you’ll probably go a long way if you:
- Are a ‘do-er’ (you’re accountable, proactive, self-directed, work hard and persist – you have a strong locus of control)
- Develop a self-directed learning and growth mindset (you know you can learn what you need to)
- Are curious and seek to understand (if you think you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re instantly not. This is tied closely to empathy and communication skills)
- Have a ’maximum value’ mindset (continuously look to add more value to others, to your team, your customers, colleagues and so on) and can both create and connect (‘sell’) value
- Help people make hard decisions (by improving at understanding others, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, coaching, sales, psychological biases, helping people to buy)
- Help others to learn (do your bit to help others increase their value quickly and connect them to the most efficient and effective means of doing so)
- Care, take care, and keep your promises (act to help others in to a stronger position and do what you say you’ll do)
- Continuously become a better leader by putting the team ahead of yourself and giving rather than taking credit
- Develop a broader outlook (awareness of your colleagues, customers, business, market, industry etc and how they all connect – not just a blind focus on your own job and your fancy technical tricks)
- Create and innovate (organise your ideas and resources to create a valuable result for others – an entrepreneurial mindset)
These are learnable
These mindsets and behaviours help almost anyone in their personal lives, their career and their business. They are high-value investments if you choose to invest in yourself or your employees. And best of all – they are all learnable.
A small increase in any of them could make a significant difference to your outcomes. And I feel they should be taught in schools.
Still, if you haven’t learned how to improve any of them, all is not lost. My job is to help others to learn and apply these behaviours in their work, to increase their engagement and satisfaction, earn themselves and their customers more rewards, and generate more revenue for their organisation.
And so, putting them in to practice myself, I am offering you and your workforce support at improving these behaviours in the most effective way possible.
Equip your employees with these mindsets and behaviours
The programs I design and deliver to businesses tackle each and any of these, and I run these for graduates, leadership, sales teams, non-sales teams practically anyone who values these behaviours.
I’ve done this for big corporates globally, government organisations, universities, small businesses and individuals with consistently satisfying results.
Perhaps you’d like to be next?
You can learn more here:
Http://www.HelpPeopleBuy.com
Http://www.HelpPeopleLearn.com
Contact me
Contact me here if you’d like to discuss how I might help your organisation. I’m UK based.
