You have been working hard, doing all needed to make your presence felt. Crunching those numbers, tasks, completing projects, a sprint after sprint. Resolving one issue after another and saving big bucks for your company directly or indirectly.
But you are not the only one doing it, your colleague Ben has been doing the same and so is Peter. Have you ever asked yourself why in spite of giving your very best, everyone likes Peter more? He is the one appreciated and celebrated amongst your fellow colleagues.
You will find your answers as you read further.
Often in our career, we are asked to get trained on a certain skill set to meet our deliverables. While the focus is to learn how to do a specific job, the initial expectation is to go from point A to point B. Let us consider the point A as raw material and point B being the processing of this raw material. So taking a few examples, if you are a receptionist and your job is to answer phone and schedule appointments depending on availability, you may be able to do that very effectively. if you are an IT professional and each day you are bombarded with various IT issues and you are able to solve all of them by end of your day, you might think you have been absolutely fantastic.
But have you given a thought that being a receptionist, the person who called to check for appointment thrice is desperately a needy lad and should have been given priority? And as an IT professional, the third problem which you picked to solve if solved first would have automatically fixed the first two problems.
PS: These examples may sound very naive but you only need to fit in those shoes. :)
The logical sense which I am trying to make is knowing the raw material Point A and knowing the processing Point B is not enough and you should also be aware of the by Product which is Point C. This point C is your end goal or the finished product and no one will voluntarily come to teach you about this.
Often in our career, we continue to work hard and doing exactly what we are supposed to do with a myopic view but until you have the vision of end goal, you would never be able to achieve success and remain stuck in the churn. This churn would obviously pay your bills and keep you going for a while till its meeting your personal needs but it would slowly create a vacuum of not being recognized or appreciated.
Success comes easily to those who reason the job they do and give supreme importance to the end goal.
Imagine being an ambulance driver, the job is not only to ensure the patient reaches the hospital but also safe and breathing. Your driving skills are only point B but his life is the point C which should be saved.
As you focus towards this very goal, you start collaborating effectively with other colleagues and departments now knowing all of them are working for the same objective. You would learn new skills during this journey thus making you a multi-skilled individual.
You will find yourself less in the conflict zone and more in the problem-solving zone. People recognize you for going the extra mile and being helpful. This would further create your personal brand image thus helping you become successful.
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