Life Skills, Money Management and Entrepreneurship

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Start The Year Right: 7 Ways To Stand Out From The Crowd
JAN 8, 2016 @ 06:01 PM - Erika Andersen , CONTRIBUTOR

Have you ever watched a contestant on a televised talent show - American Idol, The Voice, So You Think You Can Dance - just knock everybody's socks off? It happens when someone is just so unexpectedly better than all the other contestants, that everyone's attention is instantly riveted. It's fun watching the judges' expressions go from polite interest to gobsmacked in mere moments. There's a business corollary to this situation, and I've seen it happen often over the years. Someone gets hired and everyone thinks, OK, fine - hope this person is good. It's the organizational version of polite interest. And then sometimes, the new hire really blows everyone's mind, and people are suddenly thinking, Wow, this person is GREAT. I assume you want to be that person. So, here are seven things that, if you do them on a daily basis, will definitely pave the way for you to get sent through to the next round:

Deliver on your promises. Last month, I was talking to one of my sons-in-law (who is definitely a stand-out-from-the-pack kind of employee), and he told me he was shocked to find that he's considered unusual because he does what he says he'll do. It's true: You can stand out in today's world simply by being consistent in fulfilling your commitments. And, if you find it's impossible to do something you've committed to, if you immediately go to the person to whom you've made the commitment, tell them you won't be able to do it, apologize, and tell them what you'll do instead - that will make you even rarer. Amazingly, this kind of reliability is a real differentiator.

Act on feedback. Good employees are open to feedback. Great employees immediately start working to change their behavior based on the feedback. A few years ago, my business partner and I were giving feedback to someone who wanted to be a consultant in our company. We told her she needed to do more listening and questioning and less "lecturing" when in front of a group. She paid attention, and thanked us for the feedback - but didn't operate any differently the next time she was leading a group. In contrast, our head of training gave the same feedback to another trainer recently. He didn't just thank her, he asked some questions to make sure he understood the feedback, and then he asked if she would be his "audience" so he could try out the new behaviors right away. She said that he was more interactive in that very first "trial" presentation.

Offer to do things that need to be done. Bad employees complain about how things aren't happening; Good employees point out what could be happening; Great employees offer to make things happen. A client of mine who's in marketing realized that, while her company's consumer-facing brand was clear and compelling, their employee brand was murky - and that was making it hard for them to attract the kind of young creative talent they needed. She offered to work with HR, internal communications, and other folks in marketing to clarify and then communicate their employee brand. The result? A big promotion for her and more success recruiting great talent to the company.

Be hopeful. I'm not talking about being that irritating rainbows-and-sunshine person that everyone wants to throttle. The sort of hopefulness I'm encouraging, that helps the organization and that stands out on the job is a combination of solution-orientation, faith in others, and belief in the possibility of change. In other words, when something bad happens - let's say the company's new product isn't doing well in the marketplace - while the non-stand-out employees are throwing each other under the bus and predicting the company's failure, the stand-out employee is going to her boss and asking, "How can we figure out what the problem is? What can we do as a team to make it better?"

Make life easier for others. Some people think the way to stand out is to elbow everyone else out of the way. In most companies, though, exactly the opposite is what works. In today's fast, team-oriented business environment, successful people are those who share credit; who go out of their way to help teammates; who support others' ideas. If you're the person who makes things go more smoothly, who people like having on the team because life seems better and more productive when you're around - that generally gets noticed and rewarded by the powers that be.

Make the business yours. The other day, one of our consultants wrote me this great email outlining how she'd used one of our skills to improve in an area of her personal life. To see somebody taking what we do to that level thrilled and impressed me - I immediately thought about the positive impact she would have on our clients because of her personal understanding of and commitment to the efficacy of this skill. And I think my response is pretty universal: When your boss sees that you're genuinely interested in your business and how it works (using your products, watching your shows, noticing how friends respond to your service), that automatically makes her feel that you're going to be a valuable contributor to the enterprise, and distinguishes you from a run-of-the-mill employee who just shows up, does his job, and goes home.

Be a rabid learner. This is the big one. I'm convinced that being able to acquire new skills and capabilities is the key skill of the 21st century, and if you show up at work every day, looking for ways to find out more, get better, be more productive, learn how to do new things - you are going to be on everybody's short list for "most likely to succeed." We brought on a new consultant a couple of years ago who was the first person in our history to have learned enough about our IP and our approach to have delivered work in all three of our practice areas in his first year with the company. We're supporting his success in a variety of ways: he has definitely distinguished himself.

If you want to turbocharge your own success, I encourage you to look for ways to incorporate these seven behaviors into your daily work life. And if you have a colleague who you think is like this, don't waste time on envy - use him or her as a model. And if you've used some of these approaches (or others) at work to distinguish yourself, please share your successes and triumphs with us.