While many individuals strive for greatness in their careers or business, others are happy to just be good at what they do. This can be down to a lack of passion or not having enough time in the day to be great. Managers or individuals may be in a position where they personally handle many areas of their team or company’s work, and due to the heavy load they’re unable to stretch out of their comfort zone to achieve the level of greatness they desire.
Let’s face it, if you like a challenge, pushing the boat out to learn new things will provide you with a new level of experience and knowledge – it’s a win-win situation. Yet many decide to stay within the four walls they know so well, ensuring smooth sailing through their working life, producing the same old ‘good’ work.
SWEET TALK TO SUCCESS
Being a producer of good work isn’t a terrible thing; but as this is the Hot Issue, I thought we would try to kick ass in our endeavours. So it’s time to scrap being good and let’s think about how we can be great!
It’s all about sherbets and lollies… Stay with me, I’ll explain. Imagine you have a bowl of lollies (the boiled sweet kind). Throw in a handful of the rock-hard old-school sherbet pips and think about what happens – they fall to the bottom of the bowl, right? Now, let’s apply this to our work.
During the working week, you’re going to have things on your to-do list that are extremely important (time-sensitive stuff) and other things that are just as important, which need to get done, though timing for these is more flexible. The lollies in the bowl represent your extremely important tasks (the money-maker tasks), while the sherbets represent the secondary (yet still important) stuff.
In order to produce great work and be a hotshot in your field it’s essential to prioritise your lollies, making them a key focus in your working day… In other words, it’s time to FOLLOW THE MONEY and complete the tasks you get paid to deliver on. This is the start of you working to your full potential, producing great work.
Quick tips to achieve the desired level of greatness:
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE SHERBETS
Hands up if you come to the end of a working day (or week) and you’re unable to identify the great work you’ve done? That will be due to not using your lollies and sherbets!
Learn to divide your day into three: 9-11am sherbet time, 11am-4pm lolly time, and finally 4-6pm sherbet time again. While drafting your to-do list, split the page in half using the headings: sherbets at the top and lollies in the middle. Prioritise by adding tasks under either heading.
For example, for me, answering emails goes on my sherbets list. I tend to answer the majority of my emails twice a day, once in the morning, once towards the end of the day. This is because emails can be distracting, pinging in your ear every five seconds, preventing great work being produced. Should the sender need a quick answer to an email sent, they can call, they have your number. While you’re at it, add returning phone calls to your sherbet list (obviously unless it’s urgent).
LICK IT WITH LOLLIES
This is where your passion for the work you do will ooze out. Great work enables you to move further up the ladder in the office or helps your business to flourish. Great work sets individuals apart, so start adding great tasks on your lolly list. In my role as a publicist, this means achieving the tasks my clients pay me for during my lolly scheduling; this includes securing great coverage.
Between 11am-4pm I’ll be pitching news stories to journalists, developing feature ideas and press releases. If I switch to my other role as founder of a natural skin care company, this means building relationships with new retailers and maintaining those previously established, product development and implementing plans from my sales strategy.
Individuals have the ability to achieve great work; I suppose it’s being able to balance good work (sherbets) and great work (lollies) alongside each other. By learning to achieve this balance you’ll hit that level of greatness all day, every day.
Ronke Ige is the founder of Bread + Butter PR and events consultancy and Emi & Ben natural skin care company.
Ronke also works as an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust Enterprise UK and is a speaker working with young people to inspire them to become enterprising too.
Visit www.brdandbtr.com
www.emiandben.com and
www.oprahwanabe.wordpress.com