How Top Employees Set the Bar
Setting the Bar
No matter what position you are in at your company, you invariably have a co-worker who you compete with either formally or informally. There’s always someone that “set’s the bar,” otherwise how would you know if you are doing a good job? Maybe the person who set the bar worked in your position before you, and you are now trying to live up to the expectations of that position to your department head. How do these employees set the bar? I’ll give my opinion on how to set the bar in white-collar and some blue-collar environments.
1. Don’t work hard
Well… I guess I should say “Work smart.” Don’t waste time doing remedial tasks such as data entry unless you absolutely have to. If you can, pawn those tasks off to someone who has more experience doing remedial tasks. They will be more experienced and will probably do a better job at that stuff than you anyway. Just try not to micro-manage every aspect of your position. If you have help, use it. If you don’t have help, get it. If you’re in a white-collar position, you’ve already worked hard stuffing your brain full of useful information so spend time cultivating that knowledge and not wasting that knowledge doing things like taking out the trash.
2. Be creative
It doesn’t matter if you’re in sales or an editor for a magazine, you have to be creative in order to set the bar. What industry, prospect, or market segment can I call on that my co-workers have overlooked? How can I layout this page to be more appealing to the eye and create more sales for our advertisers? Creativity goes a long way when it comes to working smart instead of working hard. If you can be creative and find solutions and answers to problems that your co-workers can not or did not, you are setting the bar. Use your brain instead of your brawn to make a difference.
3. Help other people
The final and most important step to setting the bar is to help other people achieve their goals. This step is so important that many books have been written on how to get to the top and stay there, and how helping other people get what they want invariably gets you what you want so I won’t go into detail. I do recommend a book by Zig Ziglar entitled “Over the Top
That’s a few of my suggestions for setting the bar. Work smart, not just hard. Be creative, use that big noggin of yours. And finally, help other people get what they want. Not a long list but if you focus on these three areas in your life, you will start to see very good things happen to you.
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Sarah Hartwell...
I wish everyone could live in peace! Also, congratulations on quitting smoking Matt! I have been t...
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Good post. I agree we need to help other people because what goes around comes around!...
Good post. I agree we need to help other people because what goes around comes around!