The 5 step formula to be successful at work

Nobody teaches us how to be successful and we learn it the hard way in life. Here is a formula I learned in my 14 years of senior leadership experience.

Everyone wants to be successful in life. However, in the modern business world, it has been harder than ever to be successful. Doing your job and having outstanding skills are not enough to be successful. Why?

During my senior leadership experience, I have had the privilege to coach and develop many people. It helped me come out with a formula for success. People usually complain about why they cannot be promoted or get recognition or be rewarded for their outstanding skills and achievements.

I have seen many people burning out simply because their efforts to walk the extra mile were not rewarded. So what is it that makes you successful? Many people do their jobs and wait to be recognized. But they do not know how to become visible. So they get frustrated. Is it only about the external factors? Can you still be successful even if others say you failed?

I guess there are many parameters to success, and it is not always easy to give the exact and accurate answer.

Here is my 5-step formula for success for everyone.

1-RESULTS

Macchiavelli, in his book The Prince, talks about wisdom and luck. There are moments of luck in our lives, which is nothing more than the right opportunity coming in front of you. If we do not grasp them, we miss the chance. Unless we spent enough time to develop our skills and mindset, we cannot embrace these new opportunities. It requires wisdom to embrace the moments of luck. Good education and training only provide us the foundations of success, which is the skill set. Having the right skills is not enough to hit results. There are many highly intelligent people in the business world who have great ideas but fewer results. You have to know to translate goals into smaller targets, make a plan, prioritize, take action, follow-through, and make changes along the way as needed. Without results, unfortunately, even the best people will not look into your interests and character. Results matter. You should hit the targets and your key performance metrics should prove your achievements leaving no room for any debate.

2-CHARACTER

You can be the greatest mind, the most skilled, and the most successful top technical person in a company. As a metaphor to enrich the thinking process, let’s call this person a professor in his job. Even such a highly efficient person will be unsuccessful if s/he doesn’t have the right mindset and the heartset. Character is about HOW we do things while the results are about WHAT we do. Without the right character, you will be an unhappy professor in your job. You can be successful, but if you have a negative impact on your relations with your peers, with your teams, with leadership, then you’re not going to find true success. Because leadership is about influence, and people with negative influence act toxically. They harm the team spirit and damage collaboration. So make sure that you spent more than enough time to develop your character. Remember the ancient message; KNOW THYSELF. You can argue that a person cannot change. I can’t entirely agree with it. After spending 20,000 hours in learning and my self-development, and coaching people for more than 2000 hours, I have seen that everyone can change. It’s only about if you want to change or not, to what extent you can leave your comfort zones, and if you are strong and courageous enough to make the change or not.

3-VISIBILITY You can have the right results and an excellent character, but many times this will not bring you success. Especially in eastern cultures, people are taught that if they do their job well, then people will recognize it. On the contrary, in western cultures, individualism brings a pragmatic approach to the business, and therefore you are on your own to market yourself. Visibility is about networking and marketing yourself. It’s about presenting your achievements in a kind, nice, respectable way in front of the others, especially your manager and the key senior leadership. The watch-out here is that if you do more than enough or if you behave unlike yourself, then you will be perceived as an arrogant person without integrity.

4-FIND A SPONSOR

Right results, the right character, and a good network may still not give you the success you want. In big companies, if you are working in headquarters or in a big regional center, you have more opportunities to present yourself and stand out of the crowd. But working in a remote location is pretty hard, especially if you have limited travel opportunities to the regional centers and headquarters. No matter in which location you work, you need to find someone to vouch for you and your skills to take new opportunities in leadership. With the sponsorship of a senior leader, you can climb the ladder of leadership faster and easier. But make sure that you watch out for one thing. Companies have many shining stars in leadership roles, and only a few of them can continue without falling from the slippery mountain top. So make sure that you follow the right leader who has more than strong results. And expand your networks as you climb the corporate ladder.

5-FIND YOUR DREAM AND MAKE IT YOUR JOB

I know a lot of highly successful people that change carriers in the middle of their carriers. It is because they have been trying to climb at the top of the tallest tree in their forest, but when they reach that level, they recognize that they are not in the right forest. When we were a child, we used to have dreams. As we grew up, we are taught to silence our dreams and adapt to the external expectations of the people. That results in forgetting our dreams. Our dreams are not fantasies. They are not a result of daydreaming. Our dreams are the messages from our destiny. They are our calling about our life purpose.

If you find your dream and make it your daily job, you will definitely find success. Then every day will be a holiday for you. Then you will not think much about recognition, appreciation, and approval from others. Exceeding yourself and your art will be more important because your work will be your manuscript. You will not get stuck with any negative objections. You will not see any barriers as problems because you’ll be doing your job with extreme passion, which is a different version of love. When you love, you don’t see any obstacles. Therefore the success is evitable. Even if you are not the best and the most significant person in that area you are not going to rely on external factors to feel successful. Your integrity and a feeling of self realization will surpass everything. Therefore find your dream and make it your daily job. If you can’t do it, find a way to bring your dream to your daily job.

I hope my formula helps you find success. Remember that as long as you find true success within you, there is no more a question or concern about being successful or not.

Cheers, Kenan