By Sharon Woodson-Bryant
Janice is an extraordinary performer at work and because of her image she is considered a star. In case you didn’t notice, stars get more training, more mentoring, better projects and greater flexibility. The good news is that you don’t need the perfect job situation in order to be a star, because most star qualities come from you – from taking your basically good skills and bringing them up a notch.
One of the best ways to get what you want from your career is to give outstanding performance at work, according to career experts, you probably have the ability to be a star because “most people genuinely want to be more productive, do their best, and live up to their potential, but they don’t know how to do it. The traits that make stars different from everyone else are the strategies they use to do their own work and to work well with other people. Star strategies allow people to be highly effective, yet highly productive at the same time, so that stars can fulfill their potential at work and in their personal lives…. and stars have time for both. It isn’t so much what you’re born with as how you use it. And the traits of star performers are traits you can teach yourself.
Here are the four areas that have been identified to get you on the right track:
1. Initiative
Stars exceed expectations. Just doing your job is not enough. Stars do their own job well and then perform well in areas that exceed the job description. Generally, star initiative includes helping people, taking risks and seeing a project through to the end – all in arenas that go beyond their job duties.
2. Networking
Stars don’t think of networking as something to do once a day at 3pm. For stars, it’s a constant. Nothing is a complete waste of time because you can always meet someone, talk to someone, or help someone. That last piece is important – stars know that networking is as much giving as taking. And there is an inherent humility in this way of life; stars know they can’t get what they want by acting alone.
3. Self-knowledge
Knowing how to do your job is expected. You need to know how to manage your relationships, you long-term goals, and your personal development. This is not a one-time goal; this is a life commitment to very regular self-assessment. And this is a commitment to soliciting and accepting outside input, because it’s impossible to know for sure how you appear to others.
4. Kindness
Average workers see the world from their point of view. Stars have exceptional empathy and act on it: They are good followers because they know it’s important to help leaders be the best they can be, too; stars can give the right message to the right audience; and they can get an accurate big picture by looking and listening to the people around them.
The interesting thing about star performance at work is that it actually demands that you be the person you want to be anyway. Being a good person, seeking self-knowledge, and taking responsibility for where you’re going are probably key pieces of your core belief system. So you truly do not need to stray from your idea of a good life in order to be wildly successful in your career.
But remember that star performers are not people just relying on their stellar IQ or remarkable social skills. Star performers work hard to live up to the values they believe in. People who can be their true selves at work will be the outstanding leaders. The most successful of you will find the right balance between authenticity and adaptability: No small feat. To become your best self – a star, a great leader, a fulfilled worker – you need to know yourself and your goals very well.
Yet life can bring career bumps even to the best and star performance doesn’t trump interpersonal problems. What happens when you get a new boss or the company merges with another culture? You know you may have a problem and you probably know you need to make some changes and adjustments to fit into a new culture. But in some cases people do not make the necessary changes. No surprise. The more you feel like a star, the more you feel like you don’t need to change.
But don’t kid yourself that doing great work for your company means you don’t have to adjust your attitude and behavior to fit in. Even a guy who produces the most popular documentaries of the year has to get along with his boss in order to keep his job at the TV station. This is not revolutionary management. In fact there’s a Harvard Business Review case study called “What a Star – What a Jerk” that discusses the need to fire people who perform well but don’t mesh with the organization.
But, like most case studies about interpersonal skills, you don’t need to read twenty pages to know the truth: If you don’t like someone, nothing else about them matters. So don’t let stardom go to your head and cloud your ability to fit into a different culture or climate at work.
Life can be unpredictable even if you are a star. But a good star knows how to read the audience and make the adjustments if possible or to recognize that it is time to move on.
